“Well,” replied her nephew, “I wouldn’t mind, but really I don’t know where to look exactly. I may be riding about all day, for he’s gone after the missing child, I suppose, so it will be no use looking for him at the child’s home. And, besides, I’ve an engagement to play lawn-tennis and go to luncheon at the Worthingtons’, and I can’t disappoint them.”
“Not in such a case as this?” asked his aunt reproachfully. “Can’t you send a note of apology to the Worthingtons? Suppose something serious has happened to your brother!”
“Oh, nonsense, Aunt Kate,” cried Walter, who was not prepared to give up his engagement of pleasure; “don’t be afraid about Amos; he’ll turn up all right. He’s on his way home, you may depend upon it; only perhaps he has been trying to solve some wonderful problem, and has forgotten all about such commonplace things as time and space, and has fallen asleep under a hedge.”
“I will go myself, then,” said Miss Huntingdon, “and see if I can hear anything of him from the neighbours.”
“Indeed, Kate,” said her brother, “you must do nothing of the sort. Set your mind at rest. I will go myself and make inquiries; and if the boy does not make his appearance by luncheon time, we must take further steps to find him.”
“Can I be of any use, sir, in the matter?” asked Harry.
“Ah, that’s just the thing!” cried Walter. “If you can spare Harry, father, Jane can wait at luncheon; and I’ll just put Harry myself on what I think will be the right scent.”
“Well, my boy, it can be so, and you can do as you say,” replied his father. “I know we can trust Harry to do his best; he can take the old mare, and we shall do very well with Jane till he comes back.”
Nothing loath, but rather gratified with the part he had to play and the trust placed in him, the old butler set out about noon on the old mare, accompanied by Walter, who was on his way to the Worthingtons’. Harry would have preferred managing matters in his own fashion, which would have been to go on a tour of inquiry from farm to farm; but, having no choice, he surrendered himself to the guidance and directions of Walter. So they rode on together for some miles till they came within sight of the cottage where Amos had been seen by his brother playing with the little children.
“There, Harry,” said Walter, “you see that cottage? just you call in there, and you will either find my brother there, if I am not mistaken, or, at any rate, you will find somebody who will tell you where to look for him.” Then he turned and put spurs to his horse, and was soon out of sight, leaving the old servant to jog along at his leisure to the little dwelling pointed out to him, the roof of which he could just see distinctly in the distance.