He opened the door. “What’s wanted, Jimmy?”
“I didn’t know you was home,” said the lame boy, in some surprise. “I didn’t see y’u come, an’ I was watchin’. They’s somebody down here wants to see y’u.”
“Wants to see me?” he exclaimed, unable to repress a feeling of apprehension. “Who is it?”
“It’s Roger Eliot,” answered the boy below, “an’ he’s jest got a dandy hoss an’ carriage. He said you must be here, but I didn’t think y’u was.”
“Roger Eliot!” muttered Ben, descending at once. “What can he want?”
“I dunno,” admitted Jimmy, limping after him as he left the house. “He jest tole me to tell y’u to come out.”
“Hello, Stone!” called Roger from the carriage in front of the gate. “Come, get in here and take a little drive with me.”
Greatly surprised by this invitation, Ben hesitated until the boy in the carriage repeated his words urgently, but with a touch of that command which had made him a leader among the boys of the village and captain of the football team.
“I—I haven’t much time,” faltered Stone; but he wonderingly took his place at Roger’s side and was whirled away, regretfully watched by Jimmy, who hung on the sagging gate and stared after the carriage until it turned the corner under the street-light opposite the post office.
In front of the post office Chub Tuttle was munching peanuts and telling Sile Crane and Sleuth Piper of the wonderful manner in which Stone had defended Amy Eliot from Tige Fletcher’s dogs. He had reached the most thrilling portion of the tale when the carriage containing Roger and Ben turned the corner.