The Princess and Joe Potter Part 34

"Of course you want to see Essie before she leaves?"

"Are they goin' to take her right away?"

"Certainly, Joseph. Do you fancy that poor mother could go away without her?"

Joe made no reply, and, linking her arm in his, aunt Dorcas led him in through the shed, but before they had reached the cottage Plums came towards them at an unusually rapid rate of speed, crying, excitedly:

"The dudes have gone, aunt Dorcas. They've gone, and that very same swell carriage is comin' here to-morrow mornin' to take me an' Joe an'

you into the city to see the princess."

"Gone?" aunt Dorcas exclaimed, in surprise.

"Yes; I told 'em Joe was kind er grumpy 'cause princess was goin' away, an' the boss said perhaps it would be better if they took a sneak. He left a letter in the front room for you,--wrote it on a card he got out of his pocket."

It was plain to be seen from the expression on aunt Dorcas's face that she was disappointed; but she repressed her own feelings to say to Joe:

"Perhaps it is the best way, dear, for it would have caused you still more sorrow to say good-bye to Essie. Now you will have time to grow accustomed to the loss before you see her again."

Plums was in such a state of delirious excitement, owing to the fact that he was to reenter New York like a "reg'lar swell," that it seemed impossible for him to behave in a proper fashion.

He danced to and fro, as if active movement was his greatest delight, and insisted on bringing to aunt Dorcas the card which Mr. Raymond had left, even while she was making her way as rapidly as possible to the front room.

The message to the little woman read as follows:

MY DEAR MISS MILFORD: I understand that the lad who has been so kind to Essie does not wish to see her just at present; therefore, perhaps it is better we go at once, and without ceremony. Will you yet further oblige me by coming to my house to-morrow? The carriage shall be here about ten o'clock. Very sincerely yours,

EDWARD RAYMOND.

"There is no reason why we shouldn't go, dear?" aunt Dorcas asked Joe, after reading the message aloud.

"There's Dan Fernald cuttin' across the orchard, down towards the road!

Now's our time to catch him!" Plums shouted, before Joe could reply to aunt Dorcas's kindly words, and in another instant the two boys were in hot pursuit.

Aunt Dorcas, believing they were trying to catch the amateur detective in order to punish him for what had been said during the morning, cried shrilly for them to come back; but her words were unheeded, because unheard.

Master Fernald was not in condition for a race, owing to his having travelled to and fro a goodly portion of the day in search of revenge, and the chase was soon ended.

In attempting to climb over the orchard fence into the road, he tripped, fell, and, before it was possible to rise again, Joe was on his back.

"I'll have the law on you if you dare to strike me!" Dan cried, in accents of terror, and Joe replied, disdainfully:

"Don't be afraid, you bloomin' duffer. I ain't goin' to hurt you now, 'cause I feel too good. I'm only countin' on showin' what kind of a detective you are, an' tellin' what'll happen if you hang 'round here an hour longer."

"I'm goin' to New York an' have the perlice on your trail before dark to-night," Dan cried, speaking indistinctly because of Joe's grasp upon his throat.

"I'm willin' you should do that jest as soon's you get ready. It won't bother me a little bit, 'cause aunt Dorcas told the story this mornin', an' the man what put the advertis.e.m.e.nt in the papers has been out here.

Now, you listen to me, Dan Fernald, and perhaps after this you'll give over your funny detective business. All them lawyers wanted of me was to find out where the princess was, an' if, instead of runnin' away, I'd flashed myself up on Pine Street, there wouldn't have been any trouble.

I ought'er black both your eyes for tryin' to set fire to aunt Dorcas's barn; but somehow I can't do it, 'cause she don't like to have fellers fight. Now you can get into New York an' fetch your perlice."

Joe released his hold of Master Fernald; but the latter was so astonished by the information given, that he made no effort to rise.

"Is all that true, or are you foolin' me?" he asked, after a time.

"Say, the best thing you can do is to come up an' talk with aunt Dorcas.

It would do you a heap of good, Dan, an', come to think of it, you've _got_ to go."

Master Fernald was not as eager to visit the cottage now as he had been, for he understood that Joe was speaking the truth, and the prospect of meeting the little woman, after all he had said and attempted to do, was not pleasing.

"Don't let up on him," Plums cried, vindictively. "He's to blame for this whole racket, an' ought'er be served out a good deal worse'n aunt Dorcas will serve him."

Dan struggled manfully, but all to no purpose. His late friends were determined he should visit the woman he had intended to wrong, and half dragged, half carried him up the lane, until they were met by aunt Dorcas herself, who sternly asked why they were ill-treating a boy smaller than themselves.

"It's Dan Fernald, aunt Dorcas," Plums said, as if in surprise that she should have interfered. "It's the same feller what wasn't goin' to show you the paper till you'd 'greed to board him the balance of the summer, an' in less than a half an hour after you went away he set the barn afire. We thought it would do him a heap of good to talk with you a spell."

"Let him alone, children. If he doesn't wish to speak with me you must not try to force him. Suppose you two go into the garden a little while, and leave us alone?"

This did not please Plums, for he had antic.i.p.ated hearing the little woman read Master Fernald a lecture; but he could do no less than act upon the suggestion, and as the two went slowly towards the barn, Master Plummer said, regretfully:

"It's too bad we couldn't hear what she had to say, after I told her about his settin' the barn afire."

"Look here, Plums, you'd been disappointed if she'd let you listen. She ain't the kind of a woman that would rave, an' scold, an' tear 'round; but when she gets through with Dan Fernald, he'll feel a mighty sight worse than if she'd knocked his two eyes into one."

CHAPTER XVI.

THE REWARD.

The conversation did not lag during the two hours or more the boys remained near about the garden, waiting for aunt Dorcas to summon them after the interview with the amateur detective should have come to an end.

Now that there was no longer any mystery concerning the advertis.e.m.e.nt, it seemed strange they had not understood why the attorneys wished to see Joe.

"We must be awful chumps, to let Dan Fernald frighten us as he did," Joe said, thoughtfully, after they had discussed the matter in all its different phases. "Why we didn't see that it was the princess they was after, beats me! Perhaps it might have come 'round to it if I'd been alone; but that imitation detective seemed to have it down so fine, that I didn't stop to think of anything but what he said."

"Anyhow, he did us a good turn, 'cause if we hadn't skipped we'd never found out there was a woman like aunt Dorcas."

"That's a fact, Plums, an', come to look at it that way, I ain't so certain but we ought'er let up on the duffer. Say, it'll be mighty tough to go back an' live in that shanty of your'n after bein' out here, won't it?"

"Do you s'pose we've got to leave this place?" and Master Plummer looked alarmed.

"Course we have. You don't count on spongin' a livin' out of a poor little woman like aunt Dorcas, I hope?"

"I wouldn't reg'larly do her up for my board; but I was thinkin' perhaps she'd have work enough so's we could pay our way. You come pretty near squarin' things when you tackled the burglar."

"I didn't do so much as a flea-bite. If aunt Dorcas had been alone an'

heard the man sneakin' 'round, she'd been prayin' with him in less'n five minutes, an' he'd gone away a good deal more sore than he did."