- oh, yes, cook told me to-night that she found him actually eating dry bread just before he went up to bed. Dry bread-think of it! Oh, Dick, what can be the matter with him?”
“It certainly sounds mysterious,” I answered, “especially as regards the dry bread; but that of itself suggests a theory, which, as the detective says in the story, ‘I will not divulge just yet;’ only don’t worry, Lisbeth, the Imp is all right.”
Being now come to o1d Jasper’s cottage, which stands a little apart from the village in a by-lane, Lisbeth paused and held out her hand for the basket.
“Don’t wait for me to-night,” she said, “I ordered Peter to fetch me in the dog-cart; you see, I may be late.”
“Is the old chap so very ill ?”
“Very, very ill, Dick.”
“Poor old Jasper!” I exclaimed.
“Poor old Jasper!” she sighed, and her eyes were brimful of tenderness.
“He is very old and feeble,” I said, drawing her close, under pretence of handing her the basket; “and yet with your gentle hand to smooth my pillow, and your eyes to look into mine, I could almost wish - “
“Hush, Dick!”
“Peter or no Peter, I think I’ll wait - unless you really wish me to say ‘good-night’ now?” But with a dexterous turn she eluded me, and waving her hand hurried up the rose-bordered path.
An hour, or even two, does not seem so very long when one’s mind is so full of happy thoughts as mine was. Thus, I was filling my pipe and looking philosophically about for a likely spot in which to keep my vigil, when I was aware of a rustling close by, and as I watched a small figure stepped from the shadow of the hedge out into the moonlight.
“Hallo, Uncle Dick!” said a voice.
“Imp !” I exclaimed, “what does this mean? You ought to have been in bed over an hour ago !”
“So I was,” be answered with his guileless smile; “only I got up again, you know.”
“So it seems!” I nodded.
“An’ I followed you an’ Auntie Lisbeth all the way, too.”
“Did you, though; by George!”
“Yes, an’ I dropped one of the parcels an’ lost a sausage, but you never heard.”
“Lost a sausage!” I repeated, staring.
“Oh, it’s all right, you know,” he hastened to assure me; “I found it again, an’ it wasn’t hurt a bit,”
“Imp,” I said sternly, “come here, I want to talk to you.”
“Just a minute, Uncle Dick, while I get my parcels. I want you to help me to carry them, please,” and with the words he dived under the hedge to emerge a moment later with his arms full of unwieldy packages, which he laid at my feet in a row.
“Why, what on earth have you got there, Imp ?”
“This,” he said, pointing to the first, “is jam an’ ham an’ a piece of bread; this next one is cakes an’ sardines, an’ this one is bread-an’-butter that I saved from my tea.”
“Quite a collection !” I nodded. “Suppose you tell me what you mean to do with them.”
“Well, they’re for my outlaw. You remember the other day I wanted to play at being outlaws? Well, two days ago, as I was tracking a base caitiff through the woods with my trusty bow and arrow, I found a real outlaw in the old boat-house.”
“Ah! and what is he like?” I inquired.
“Oh, just like an outlaw - only funny, you know, an’ most awfull’ hungry. Are all outlaws always so very hungry, Uncle Dick?”
“I believe they generally are, Imp. And he looks ‘funny,’ you say?”
“Yes; I mean his clothes are funny - all over marks like little crosses, only they aren’t crosses.”
“Like this ?” I inquired; and picking up a piece of stick I drew a broad-arrow upon the path.
“Yes, just like that !” cried the Imp in a tone of amazement “How did you know? You’re awfull’ clever, Uncle Dick!”
“And he is in the old boat-house, is he?” I said, as I picked up an armful of packages. “‘Lead on, MacDuff!’”
“Mind that parcel, please, Uncle Dick; it’s the one I dropped an’ lost the sausage out of - there one trying to escape now!”
Having reduced the recalcitrant sausage to a due sense of law and order, we proceeded toward the old boat- house - a dismal, dismantled affair, some half mile or so downstream.
“And what sort of a fellow is your outlaw, Imp?”
“Well, I spected he’d be awfull’ fierce an’ want to hold me for ransom, but he didn’t; he’s quite quiet, for an outlaw, with grey hair and big eyes, an’ eats an awful lot.”
“So you saved him your breakfast and dinner, did you?”
