After a while he began to suspect that he had made a wrong decision. The road became little more than a lane, and seemed unfrequented. But just as he was going to turn back he espied at some distance from the road a rude dwelling, which, from its weather-beaten appearance, seemed never to have been painted.
"I can find out something there, at any rate," thought Jasper, and he bent his steps toward it.
Brief time brought him in front of the house. It was certainly a quiet-looking place.
"It must be dismal to live here," thought Jasper.
He knocked with his fist at the door. On account of the smallness of the house the knock certainly must have been heard, but there was no response.
"The people must be deaf," thought Jasper.
He knocked again, this time considerably louder, and waited for some one to answer his summons.
He waited in vain.
"It must be a deserted house," thought our hero. "I have a great mind to explore it--that is, if I can get in."
He tried the door, and, a little to his surprise, it yielded to his touch. The door being in the centre of the house, there was a room on each side. The door to the left; opened into a room which was quite bare of furniture. On the other side, however, was a room containing a table and three chairs. On the table was a dirty clay-pipe and a box of tobacco, and there was a dead odor of tobacco-smoke lingering in the closely-shut room.
"That looks as if there were somebody living here," thought Jasper.
"Halloo!" he shouted, raising his voice.
He felt that it would be better to make his presence known, as otherwise he might be suspected of entering the house with burglarious designs, though it would have puzzled a burglar to find anything worth purloining.
"There can"t be anybody in the house or I should have been heard,"
thought our hero. "However, I"ll call again."
This time there was a faint sound that came to his ears. It seemed like the voice of a child.
"Where did that come from?" Jasper considered.
And he waited to hear if it would be repeated.
It was repeated, and now he could make out that it came from above.
"I"ll go up," he decided.
He climbed the rude staircase, and pushed open the door of the room above the one in which he had been standing a moment before. He gazed in wonder at the spectacle before him.
A boy, five years of age, who in spite of his frightened expression possessed great personal beauty, was lying on a bed in one corner of the room. He looked at Jasper in uncertainty at first, then with confidence, and said:
"Did you come for me?"
"Do you live here?" asked Jasper, in surprise, for this boy was not at all like the children usually to be found in such houses as this.
His complexion was of dazzling whiteness, his hair was a bright chestnut, and his clothing was such as wealthy parents can afford to give to their children.
"Do you live here?" repeated Jasper.
"No," said the child.
"How came you here, then?"
"Big man--big, ugly man brought me."
"When?"
"I don"t know," said the child.
He was evidently too young to measure the lapse of time.
"Was it yesterday?"
"No; long ago."
"I suppose it seems long to him," thought Jasper.
"Is there n.o.body else in the house?" asked Jasper.
"There"s a woman," said the little boy.
"Is she the wife of the man who took you away?"
But this question the little boy did not seem to comprehend.
"Have you got a mother?" asked Jasper.
"Take me to mamma," said the little fellow, stretching out his arms, and beginning to cry. "I want to see my mamma."
Jasper advanced to the bed.
He began to understand that the boy had been kidnapped, and he felt great compa.s.sion for him.
He tried to raise the boy from the bed and take him in his arms, when he made an unexpected discovery.
The boy"s ankles were firmly tied by a rope, which connected with the bedpost, so that it was impossible for him to leave the bed.
"Who did this?" asked Jasper, indignantly. "Who tied you?"
"It was the man--the big, ugly man," answered the child.
"I will soon unfasten you," said Jasper, and he set to work untying the knot.
"Will you take me home?" asked the little boy.
"Yes," said Jasper, soothingly, "I"ll take you home."
But just as he had completed his task he heard steps upon the stairs.