“Thanks, awfully,” said Dick, gratefully; “we should never have found it.”
The other two echoed their gratitude, and the delighted old gentleman valued their thanks quite as much as his Commission of the Peace.
“Now you’ve got it,” said he, “come along and have a bit of lunch at my house; I’m not five minutes away.”
“Thanks, very much,” said Dick, “but I’m afraid—”
“Nonsense! come on. You’re out of the hunt; ten minutes won’t make any difference.”
Of course they yielded, and enjoyed a sumptuous lunch of cold meat and bread and cheese, which made new men of them. It took all their good manners to curb their attentions to the joint; and their chatty host spun out the repast with such stories of his own school days, that the ten minutes grew to fully half an hour before they could get away.
Before they did so Dick, who for a quarter of an hour previously had been exhibiting signs of agitation and inward debate, contrived to astonish both the “Firm,” and his host.
“We saw you at Tom White’s trial the other day, sir,” said he, abruptly, at the close of one of the Squire’s stories.
“Bless my soul! were you there? Why, of course—all three of you; I saw you. They didn’t let the youngsters do that sort of thing in my day.”
“We were rather interested about White, you know,” said Dick, nervously.