"Same to you, sir. But, say, what happened to that little package I handed you for mother?"
"I put it on the table before retiring last night," replied Mr.
Prescott. "It must be there--but it isn"t, is it?"
"Honest, now, dad, this isn"t a joke, is it?"
"Not on my part, anyway," replied the elder Prescott rather blankly.
"Now, I suppose that you"re both playing a little joke on me, trying to make me curious and impatient," laughed d.i.c.k"s mother.
"But where is the package?" demanded d.i.c.k, exploring all around. His father lent a helping hand in the search.
"Oh, never mind, d.i.c.k, dear," urged his mother. "My surprise is bound to turn up. It couldn"t have walked out of these rooms. Look at your own package, my boy."
d.i.c.k turned to glance eagerly at a not very large box, against which rested a card bearing his own name. He saw, at a glance, that the box bore the imprint of one of the Gridley jewelers.
"I can guess!" cried d.i.c.k. "I know what"s in the box!"
"Suppose you made a wrong guess?" laughed his mother teasingly. "Better open it and make sure."
d.i.c.k picked up the box with trembling fingers.
"Mighty light, whatever it is," he murmured. Then he took off the cover.
"What"s this?" choked d.i.c.k. "O-o-o-h!"
For all he saw resting in the box was a slip of white paper on which had been poorly printed, in lead pencil, the words:
"Merry Christmas, Master b.u.t.t-in!"
"Some of Dad"s fooling," laughed d.i.c.k a moment later.
"Not much it isn"t," retorted Mr. Prescott, taking a quick step forward.
"Let me see that paper."
d.i.c.k handed it over, and his father read the words.
"What on earth does this mean?" he demanded. "What we put in that box was your first watch, d.i.c.k. A silver-cased watch and a very neat gold-plated chain."
One look at his father and a swift glance at his mother convinced the boy that they had not been parties to any joke. Yet where were the watch and chain?
"Who could have left this slip of paper here?" asked Mrs. Prescott.
"Hardly any one outside of the family," replied Mr. Prescott. "I don"t understand this at all."
"And mother"s gift, too?" pondered d.i.c.k aloud, growing more puzzled every instant.
"Well, certainly no one else has been in this flat," went on Mrs.
Prescott.
But d.i.c.k flew first to one parlor window, and then to the other. Next he crossed the parlor in two bounds, dashing to his bedroom. He came back, holding the slip of paper he had taken from the outer door the night before.
"The two slips look as though they had been printed by the same fellow, don"t they?" inquired the boy.
"Yes," nodded Mr. Prescott. d.i.c.k told him about finding the other slip on the door the evening before.
"But who could play such a mean trick?" insisted Mrs. Prescott.
"The fit-thrower, very likely," d.i.c.k answered.
"The fit--what?"
Then d.i.c.k hastily recalled to them his adventures of the day before.
"And one parlor window is fastened," d.i.c.k went on. "The other has its catch slipped. The fit-thrower must have climbed up in the night, slipped the catch with a thin blade and prowled around in here just to spoil our Christmas."
"It looks that way," nodded Mr. Prescott slowly, his usually calm eyes filled with disappointment. Then he added, to his wife: "My dear, I"m very glad, indeed, that I placed your chain on your bureau last night, instead of leaving it here on the parlor table."
"And poor d.i.c.k doesn"t get any present!" cried Mrs. Prescott, her eyes filling a bit. "O d.i.c.k, this year we thought we"d please you more by putting all the money we could spare into one present, so we got your watch and chain that you"ve wanted for so long. It"s--it"s too, too bad!"
Mrs. Prescott, though seldom given to tears, now sank to the sofa, pulled out her handkerchief and gave brief vent to her own great disappointment.
"Never mind, mother; it may turn up all right yet," urged d.i.c.k soothingly, as he rested one arm around her waist. "But if Mr. Fits really did break in here and take your present, then I feel as though I"d enjoy trailing him to the end of the earth and seeing him shoved away behind strong bars!"
"It seems almost fantastic," declared Mr. Prescott, "but I"m afraid, d.i.c.k, that the scoundrel you"ve told us about really did break in here on purpose to spoil your Christmas. If he didn"t come in person he must have sent someone."
"Oh, well, anyway," protested d.i.c.k, trying to stifle his disappointment, both on his mother"s account and his own, "probably we"ll all live to see more Christmases. But, mother, I"m awfully sorry about the loss of your gift. Dad thought, too, that I had made a fine choice."
"Indeed you did, young man," remarked Mr. Prescott. "You know, my dear, that the last time you went to the opera house it was a gala occasion, and you regretted that you didn"t have a really nice fan to carry? d.i.c.k remembered that, and he got you a fan. It was a handsome one. I didn"t believe that a young boy could have as much taste as our son displayed in choosing that fan. And now--it isn"t here!"
Then each tried to cheer the other up, but despite their best efforts it started in as a gloomy Christmas morning. The Prescotts, while not by any means poverty stricken, were yet in very moderate circ.u.mstances.
d.i.c.k knew well enough that his parents would not be able to duplicate his much-wanted Christmas gift, and that he would have to wait until some dim time in the future before he could hope to carry a watch of his own.
So all three went out to the breakfast table. d.i.c.k, to do him justice, thought more of his mother"s loss than of his own.
"Are you going to the police about this, my dear?" Mrs. Prescott asked her husband presently.
"I could," the elder Prescott replied, "but I don"t imagine it would do much good. The stuff that has been taken isn"t likely to be restored to us. I doubt if the police would think it even worth any effort. It isn"t an important robbery, as crime goes. It was just a little trick of revenge."
"Mr. Fits is revenged all right, then," admitted d.i.c.k, with a bitter smile. "Oh, I only hope that I get a fair chance to pay him back one of these near days! But, at any rate, my Christmas isn"t going to be spoiled. You have already agreed to my going away on the camping trip to-morrow, and that is going to be more fun for me than two Christmases."
"I"m glad you"re looking forward so to enjoying your vacation in the forest," smiled Mrs. Prescott. "It does seem fortunate that you have such a treat at hand to repay you for your disappointment."
Suddenly d.i.c.k looked blank for an instant. Laying down his knife he employed his right hand in making a frantic thrust into one of his trousers" pockets. Then he fished up a banknote.
"Thank goodness that is all right," he gasped. "Mr. Fits didn"t think to look for that. It"s my five dollars left out of Mrs. Dexter"s present, and is the money that I"m going to pay my share of the camp expenses with. But, on second thought, I believe I"ll drop out of that camping scheme."
"Why?" asked Mr. Prescott, in a rather sharp, queer voice.