Four Afoot: Being the Adventures of the Big Four on the Highway. Barbour Ralph Henry

Dan’s jacket pocket came a clanking sound as the steel wrench jostled a couple of iron nuts. When they had regained the porch Dan’s look of innocence gave place to a grin of delight and satisfaction.

      “You watch for him. If he comes call me. I’m going to get Bob and our knapsacks.”

      “What do you want the knapsacks for?” asked Tom suspiciously.

      “Because it’s more than likely that we’ll want to leave here in a hurry, my son,” answered Dan gravely.

      “Without our dinner?” cried Tom.

      “What is dinner to revenge?” asked Dan sweetly.

      “But – but – ” stammered Tom.

      “S-sh!” cautioned Dan. “Not a word above a whisker!”

      “But look here, Dan,” said Nelson a bit anxiously, “aren’t you afraid the old duffer’ll get hurt? Maybe the horse will run away!”

      “Have you seen the horse?” asked Dan. “Now keep a watch up the street and don’t forget to call me if he comes. I wouldn’t miss it for a thousand dollars!”

      “Just the same, I don’t quite like it,” said Nelson when Dan had disappeared.

      “And no dinner!” moaned Tom. “Why couldn’t we let the old idiot alone until we’d had something to eat?”

      Dan returned with the knapsacks and they awaited developments. Presently Bob joined them, his hands bearing eloquent proof of his recent occupation. They didn’t tell Bob what was up for fear he might forbid them to go on with it. Ten minutes passed. The dinner gong rang and Tom looked restlessly and mutinous.

      “I’m going to have my dinner,” he muttered.

      “All right,” answered Bob; “let’s go in.”

      “Oh, just wait a minute,” begged Dan. “We’ll have more appetite if we sit here awhile longer. By the way, we saw our old friend, Mr. Abner Wade, awhile ago, Bob.”

      “Yes, you did,” said Bob incredulously.

      “Honest! That’s his horse and buggy over there now.”

      Bob had to hear about it and ten minutes more passed. Then Tom mutinied openly.

      “I’m going to have my dinner,” he said doggedly. “I’m starved. You fellows can sit here if you want to, but – ”

      “Here he comes!” cried Nelson softly.

      Tom forgot his hunger, and the expression of rebellious dissatisfaction on his countenance gave way to a look of pleasurable anticipation. Dan and Nelson watched silently the approach of Mr. Abner Wade.

      “Look here,” demanded Bob suspiciously, “what’s up, you chaps?”

      There was no answer, for Mr. Wade was untying his sorrel steed. Tom giggled hysterically. In climbed the farmer.

      “Get ap,” he commanded, and the sorrel horse moved off leisurely. The boys held their breath. Farther and farther away went Mr. Wade – and nothing happened! Dan began to look uneasy. Tom’s pale gray eyes opened wider and wider. And then, just when it seemed that the conspirators were doomed to disappointment, Nemesis overtook Mr. Abner Wade.

      Suddenly, without warning, the front wheel on the far side of the buggy started off on its own hook and went rolling toward the sidewalk. Reaching the curb, it toppled over and fell on to the foot of a passer-by. The passer-by set up a cry of alarm – possibly of anguish. At the next moment the rear wheel, indignant, perhaps, at the desertion of its mate, lay down flat in the street. And simultaneously over went the buggy and out slid Mr. Abner Wade. The sorrel horse, evincing no alarm, stopped short in his tracks. And the crowd gathered, hiding the astonished and wrathful face of Mr. Wade and stilling the cries of the gentleman who had come in contact with the front wheel.

      Over on the hotel porch four boys, doubled up with laughter, staggered into the office, and, led by Dan, passed hurriedly out of a rear door. And as they went, from the dining room came an appealing odor of cooked viands. Out on the side street Dan dodged into a livery stable and rejoined them quickly.

      “Let’s go this way,” he gurgled. “I don’t know where it takes us to, but – ”

      “Did you do that?” demanded Bob.

      “Yes; wasn’t it rich? We didn’t tell you for fear you wouldn’t let us do it.”

      “You chump!” answered Bob. “Why, I’d have helped if you’d told me!”

      “It was simply gu-gu-great!” stammered Tom. “Only – say, did you fellows smell that dinner?”

      “Yes, my son,” answered Dan, “but there’s no dinner for us just now. Us for the broad highway!”

      A few minutes later they had left the village behind and were passing between rolling meadows. Dan took two small articles from his pocket and shied them, one after another, into a cornfield.

      “What were those?” asked Bob.

      “Nuts,” answered Dan. “Nuts from the hubs of Abe’s chariot.”

      “I suppose he can get more,” said Nelson regretfully.

      “Yes, but it’ll take him some time, and they’ll charge him for them. And I’ll bet that’ll nearly break his heart. Oh, he’s a great joker, is Abe, but there are others!”

      “Where’s this road taking us to?” asked Tom.

      “I don’t know, but not toward Sisset, I’ll bet,” said Dan. “Pull out that lying map of yours, Bob.”

      But the map didn’t help much, since they didn’t know which of the numerous roads they were traveling.

      “Let’s see that old compass of yours, Tommy,” demanded Dan. “What’s the matter with it? Say, it’s gone crazy!”

      “Get out! You don’t know how to use it,” said Tom. “Give it here.” He tapped it smartly on his knee, observed it gravely a moment, studied the position of the sun, and then announced, “There! That’s north!”

      “Then we’re going back home,” said Nelson discouragedly, “straight back toward New York!”

      “Pshaw! We can’t be,” said Bob. “Here, let’s see. Get out, you idiots, you’re looking at the wrong end of the needle. There’s north and we’re going northeast by east.”

      “Ship ahoy!” murmured Dan. “Sail off the weather bow, sir.”

      “Then if we keep on we’ll strike Barrington?” asked Tom.

      “Yes, and that means a good hotel, Tommy, and a good dinner. It’s rather a joke on us, though,” continued Bob. “We had decided to go to the south shore, and here we are only three or four miles from the Sound!”

      “We’re not that far from water,” said Nelson, pointing to the map. “Here’s Old Spring Harbor right forninst us here.”

      “That’s right. Well, say, then we must be on this road here,” said Bob, pointing. “If we are, we ought to strike a bridge pretty soon where we cross this creek, or whatever it is.”

      But their doubt was set at rest a moment later when a man in a dogcart slowed down at their hail and gave them all the information they desired.

      “This is the Barrington road,” he said, “and Barrington station is about two miles. The town is three miles from here, straight ahead. There are several hotels there and lots of boarding houses.”

      “That man’s a regular cyclopedia,” said Dan when the dogcart was out of sight.

      “He’s a bearer of good tidings,” said Tom thoughtfully.

      A mile farther on hunger overcame Tom’s discretion and he partook of some half-ripe apples, against the advice of the others. But although the others viewed him apprehensively all the rest of the way, Tom showed no ill effects, although he had to own up to an uneasiness. The last two miles of the distance was in sight