Part 27 (1/2)
”No.”
”It snowed the day after I went away from here to Ebettsville. They must have come here and gone before that snow then. That snow covered their tracks. How's that?”
”Not so good,” the lawyer promptly told him. ”You forget the live embers in the grate. Those embers would not have stayed alive for five days.”
”Ain't that a fac'?” muttered the old man.
They pondered in silence for a moment.
Hedden suddenly entered the room. He seemed flurried, and his employer knew that something of moment had occurred.
”What is the matter, Hedden?” the latter asked.
”I have to report, sir, that somebody has been at the goods in the pantry--the canned food and other provisions that we brought up.”
”What do you mean?” asked Mr. Howbridge curiously.
”The chef, sir, says that quite a good deal of food has been stolen.
He put the stuff away. There is a lot of it gone, sir--and that since last night at dinner time.”
”Humph! Isn't that strange?” murmured the lawyer.
M'Graw grunted and started for the front door.
”Where are you going, M'Graw?” asked Mr. Howbridge.
”I'm going to find out who shot that fox,” was the woodsman's enigmatical answer.
CHAPTER XVII
ALL DOWN HILL
The party of young people with the bobsled was very merry indeed just as soon as they got out of hearing of the Lodge. By striking into a path which opened into the wood right behind the barns, they cut off any view the two little girls and Sammy Pinkney might have caught of their departure.
”I feel somewhat condemned for leaving them behind,” Ruth said. ”Yet I know it is too far for such little people to go along and get back for lunch.”
”Oh, they are having a good time,” Cecile said. ”You make yourself a slave to your young family, Ruthie,” and she laughed.
”We will make it up to the kids,” Luke joined in. ”After we have tried the slide they can have a shot at it.”
”That's all right,” grinned Neale O'Neil. ”But if Tess Kenway thinks she has been snubbed or neglected--well! you will not hear the last of it in a hurry, believe me.”
This part of the wood into which the young people had entered was a sapling growth. Not many years before the timber had been cut and there were only brush clumps and small trees here now.
Flocks of several different kinds of birds--sparrows, buntings, jays, swamp robins, and others--flew noisily about. There were berries and seeds to be found in the thickets. The birds had begun to forage far from the swamps--a sign that the snow was heavy and deep in their usual winter feeding places.
”The dear little birdies!” cooed Agnes, waving her gloved hand at a flock that spread out fan-wise in the covert, frightened by the approach of the young people.
Suddenly there arose a vast racket--a whirring and trampling sound, as though it were of runaway hoofs. Agnes shrieked and glanced about her.