Try and Trust Or Abner Holden's Bound Boy Part 19

"All is ready," he said. "Take and eat, if my food is not too rude."

Herbert did eat, and with appet.i.te. He was a growing boy, whose appet.i.te seldom failed him, and he had been working hard since breakfast, which he had taken at six, while it was now one o'clock. No wonder he was hungry.

Ralph looked on with approval.

"You are the first that has shared my meal for many a long day," he said. "Day after day, and year after year, I have broken my fast alone, but it seems pleasant, after all," he said, musingly. "Men are treacherous and deceitful, but you," he said, resting his glance on the frank, ingenuous face of his youthful guest, "you must be honest and true, or I am greatly deceived."

"I hope you will find me so," said Herbert, interested more and more in the rough-looking recluse, about whose life he suspected there must be some sad secret, of which the world knew nothing.

After dispatching the meal provided by his hospitable entertainer, Herbert sat down on the gra.s.s just outside the cabin, and watched lazily the smoke which issued from Ralph's pipe, as it rose in many a fantastic curl.

"How long have you lived here, Ralph?" asked our hero at length.

"Ten years," said the recluse, removing his pipe from his lips.

"It is a long time."

"Yes, boy, a long time in the life of one as young as you, but to me it seems but yesterday that I built this cabin and established myself here."

"Are you not often lonely?"

"Lonely? Yes, but not more so than I should be in the haunts of men. I have company, too. There are the squirrels that leap from bough to bough of the tall trees. Then there are the birds that wake me with their singing. They are company for me. They are better company than men.

They, at least, will not deceive me."

He paused, and bent his eyes upon the ground. He was thinking, not of the boy beside him, but of some time in the past, and the recollection apparently was not pleasant.

The afternoon wore away at length, and the shadows deepened in the woods. Herbert wandered about, and succeeded in gathering some nuts, which he carried to Ralph's cabin. When eight o'clock came, the Ranger said: "You had better lie down and rest, my boy; I will wake you up at twelve, and we will go together to Holden's place, and see if we can get your clothes."

To this proposal Herbert willingly a.s.sented, as he began to feel tired.

He slept, he knew not how long, when he was gently shaken by Ralph.

"Where am I?" he asked, rubbing his eyes.

The sight of the Ranger bending over him soon brought back the recollection of his position, and he sprang up promptly. Ralph showed him an easier way out of the woods than that by which he had entered, and less embarra.s.sed by the growth of underbrush.

In half an hour they were standing by Abner Holden's house. It was perfectly dark, the inmates probably being fast asleep.

"I know where the housekeeper sleeps," said Herbert. "I'll throw up a pebble at her window, and perhaps it will wake her up."

He did as proposed. Mrs. Bickford, who was a light sleeper, heard, and went to the window.

"Who's there?" she asked.

"It is I, Mrs. Bickford," said Herbert.

"What, Herbert? Shall I let you in?"

"No; I don't want to come in. All I want is my clothes. They are up in my trunk."

"I'll go up and get them for you."

She went upstairs and quickly returned with the clothes, which she let down from the window.

"Are you hungry, Herbert?" she asked. "Let me bring you something to eat."

"No, thank you, Mrs. Bickford; I am stopping with Ralph the Ranger. He has kindly given me all the food I want."

"What are you going to do? Are you going to stop with him?"

"No, I am going East in a day or two. I am going to New York. I will write to you from there."

"I am sorry to have you go, Herbert. I wish things could have been pleasanter, so that you might have stayed. But I think I hear Mr. Holden stirring. Good-by, and may G.o.d be with you!"

She closed the window hastily, and Herbert, not wis.h.i.+ng to get into a collision with Abner Holden, who he suspected might have heard something, withdrew swiftly. Ralph, who was standing near by, joined him, and both together went back to the woods.

CHAPTER XIII

A MOMENT OF PERIL

Abner Holden did not suspect that Herbert actually intended to leave him permanently; but when evening came, and he did not return, he became apprehensive that such was the case. Now, for more than one reason, he objected to our hero's leaving. First, because he was a strong, capable boy, and his services were worth considerable, and, secondly, because he disliked Herbert, and it was a satisfaction to tyrannize over him, as his position enabled him to do. There are some men in whom the instinct of petty tyranny exists to such an extent that they cannot feel happy without someone to exercise their authority over. Such a man was Abner Holden. He was a bully and a tyrant by nature, and decidedly objected to losing one so completely in his power as Herbert was.

When night came and Herbert did not return, he decided to search for him, and bring him back, if found, the very next day. He did not impart his purpose to Mrs. Bickford, for he was at no loss to discover that the sympathies of the kind-hearted housekeeper were not with him, but with the boy whom he wished to abuse. When breakfast was over, therefore, he merely said: "Mrs. Bickford, I am going out for a short time. If Herbert should return while I am absent, you may tell him to finish hoeing those potatoes in the garden."

"Do you think he will come back, Mr. Holden?" asked the housekeeper.

"Yes; he will soon be tired of wandering about. He will learn to prize a good home after he has slept out of doors one night."

Mrs. Bickford did not reply; but she did not feel quite so much confidence as her employer appeared to do in the excellence of the home which Herbert had enjoyed under Abner Holden's roof.

"It's just as well he doesn't suspect Herbert's plan," she thought, and without further words, began to clear away the breakfast dishes.

Abner was not long in deciding that Herbert was hidden in the woods.

That, indeed, seemed the most natural place of refuge for one placed in his circ.u.mstances. He determined, therefore, to seek there first.

We must now return to Herbert.

"If you will wait till nightfall," said Ralph, "you will be more safe from pursuit, and I will accompany you for a few miles."

This seemed plausible, and our hero consented.

Ralph went off on a hunting expedition, but Herbert remained behind, fearing that he might tear or stain his clothes, of which it was necessary, now, to be careful. How to pa.s.s the time was the question. To tell the truth, the hunter's cabin contained little that would help him.

There were no books visible, for Ralph seemed to have discarded everything that would remind him of that civilization which he had forsaken in disgust.

Herbert went outside, and watched the squirrels that occasionally made their appearance flitting from branch to branch of the tall trees. After a while his attention was drawn to a bird, which flew with something in its beak nearly to the top of a tall tree not far off.