And next moment I found myself bowling merrily along in the baker"s cart all among the loaves and flour-bags to Packworth.
My jovial driver seemed glad of a companion, and we soon got on very good terms, and conversed on a great variety of topics.
Presently, as we seemed to be nearing the town, I ventured to inquire, "I say, do you know Jack Smith at Packworth?"
The Jehu laughed.
"Know him--old Jack Smith? Should think I do."
"You do?" cried I, delighted, springing to my feet and knocking over a whole pyramid of loaves. "Oh, I _am_ glad. It"s him I want to see."
"Is it now?" said the fellow, "and what little game have you got on with him? Going a grave-diggin", eh?"
"Grave-digging, no!" I cried. "Jack Smith and I were at school together--"
The driver interrupted me with a loud laugh.
"Oh, my eye, that"s a good "un; you at school with old Jack Smith! Oh, that"ll do, that"ll do!" and he roared with laughter.
"But I really was," repeated I, "at Stonebridge House."
"You was? How long before you was born was it; oh my eye, eh?"
"It was only last year."
"Last year, and old Jack lost the last tooth out of his head last year too."
"What! has he had his teeth out?" cried I, greatly concerned.
"Yes, and all his hair off since you was at school with him," cried my companion, nearly rolling off the box with laughter.
"What do you mean?" I cried, in utter bewilderment at this catalogue of my friend"s misfortunes.
"Oh, don"t ask me. Old Jack Smith!"
"He"s not old," said I, "not very, only about sixteen."
This was too much for my driver, who clapped me on the back, and as soon as he could recover his utterance cried, "My eyes, you _will_ find him growed!"
"Has he?" said I, half envious, for I wasn"t growing very quickly.
"Ain"t he! He"s growed a lump since you was at school together," roared my eccentric friend.
"What is he doing?" I asked, anxious to hear something more definite of poor Jack.
"Oh, the same old game, on"y he goes at it quieter nor he used. Last Sunday that there bell-ringing regular blowed him out, the old covey."
A light suddenly dawned upon me.
"Bell-ringing; old covey. That"s not the Jack Smith I mean!"
"What!" roared my companion, "you don"t mean him?"
"No, who?" cried I, utterly bewildered.
"Why, old Jack Smith, the s.e.xton, what was eighty-two last Christmas!
You wasn"t at school with him! Oh, I say; here, take the reins: I can"t drive straight no longer!" and he fairly collapsed into the bottom of the cart.
This little diversion, amusing as it was, did not have the effect of allaying my anxiety to hear something about my old schoolfellow.
My driver, however, although he knew plenty of Smiths in the town, knew no one answering to Jack"s description; and, now that Packworth was in sight, I began to feel rather foolish to have come so far on such a wild-goose chase.
Packworth is a large town with about 40,000 inhabitants; and when, having bidden farewell to the good-natured baker, I found myself in its crowded bustling streets, any chance of running against my old chum seemed very remote indeed.
I went to the post-office where my two letters had been addressed, the one I wrote a year ago, just after Jack"s expulsion, and the other written last week from Brownstroke.
"Have you any letters addressed to `J"?" I asked.
The clerk fumbled over the contents of a pigeon-hole, from which he presently drew out my last letter and gave it to me.
"Wait a bit," said he, as I was taking it up, and turning to leave the office. "Wait a bit."
He went back to the pigeon-hole, and after another sorting produced, very dusty and dirty, my first letter. "That"s for `J" too," said he.
Then Jack had never been to Packworth, or got my letter, posted at such risk. He must have given me a false address. Surely, if he lived here, he would have called for the letter. Why did he tell me to write to Post-Office, Packworth, if he never meant to call for my letters?
A feeling of vexation crossed my mind, and mingled with the disappointment I felt at now being sure my journey here was a hopeless one.
I wandered about the town a bit, in the vague hope of something turning up. But nothing did. Nothing ever does when a fellow wants it. So I turned tail, and faced the prospect of a solitary ten-mile walk back to Brownstroke.
I felt decidedly down. This expedition to Packworth had been a favourite dream of mine for many months past, and somehow I had never antic.i.p.ated there would be much difficulty, could I once get there, in discovering my friend Smith. But now he seemed more out of reach than ever. There were my two neglected letters, never called for, and not a word from him since the day I left Stonebridge House. I might as well give up the idea of ever seeing him again, and certainly spare myself the trouble of further search after him.
I was walking on, letters in hand, engaged in this sombre train of thought, when suddenly, on the road before me, I heard a clatter of hoofs accompanied by a child"s shriek. At the same moment round a corner appeared a small pony galloping straight towards where I was, with a little girl clinging wildly round its neck, and uttering the cries I had heard.
The animal had evidently taken fright and become quite beyond control, for the reins hung loose, and the little stirrup was flying about in all directions.
Fortunately, the part of the road where we were was walled on one side, while the other bank was sloping. I had not had much practice in stopping runaway horses, but it occurred to me that if I stood right in the pony"s way, and shouted at him as he came up, he might, what with me in front and the wall and slope on either side, possibly give himself a moment for reflection, and so enable me to make a grab at his bridle.
And so it turned out. I spread out my arms and yelled at him at the top of my voice, with a vehemence which quite took him aback. He pulled up dead just as he reached me, so suddenly, indeed, that the poor child slipped clean off his back, and then, before he could fling himself round and continue his bolt in another direction, I had him firmly by the snaffle.
The little girl, who may have been twelve or thirteen, was not hurt, I think, by her fall. But she was dreadfully frightened, and sat crying so piteously that I began to get quite alarmed. I tied the pony up to the nearest tree, and did what I could to relieve the young lady"s tribulation, a task in which I was succeeding very fairly when a female, the child"s nurse, arrived on the scene in a panic. Of course my little patient broke out afresh for the benefit of her protectress, and an affecting scene ensued, in the midst of which, finding I was not wanted, and feeling a little foolish to be standing by when so much crying and kissing was going on, I proceeded on my way, half wishing it had been my luck to secure that lively little pony for my journey home.
However, ten miles come to an end at last, and in due time I turned up at Brownstroke pretty tired, and generally feeling somewhat down in the mouth by my day"s adventures.
But those adventures, or rather events, were not yet over; for that same evening brought a letter with the London postmark and the initials M., B., and Company on the seal of the envelope!
You may fancy how eagerly I opened it. It ran as follows: