The boys seated themselves comfortably in the office chairs, and listened to the music.
"You needn"t think you"re going to get Henry Burns to go off with you,"
the colonel said, finally. "It"s half-past nine now, and his bedtime is ten o"clock. I wonder where he is."
Arthur Warren chuckled quietly to himself. He could have told the colonel just where Henry Burns was at that moment; that he was busily engaged in conveying a certain basket of supplies from outside the kitchen window, up a pair of back stairs, to his room on the second floor above.
"You go and keep an eye on Colonel Witham," he had said to Arthur Warren, "and if he starts to look for me, you go to the door and whistle."
Which accounted for the sudden appearance of all the Warrens and Tom and Bob in the presence of Colonel Witham.
Fifteen minutes elapsed, and one by one they had all disappeared.
"Good riddance," was the colonel"s mental e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n when he found them gone.
Great would have been his amazement and indignation could he have but seen them, a few minutes later, seated comfortably on the bed in Henry Burns"s room. It was approaching ten o"clock.
"Where"s Bob?" asked Henry Burns, as the boys quietly entered, and he made the door fast behind them.
"Hm!" said Tom, shaking his head regretfully. "It"s a sad thing about Bob. It"s too bad, but I don"t think he will be here, after all."
"Why, what"s the matter?" exclaimed Henry Burns, with surprise. "He isn"t hurt, is he? I saw him a few hours ago, and he seemed all right."
"No, he isn"t hurt,-at least, not the way you mean, Henry. The fact is, he was dancing out on the piazza about half an hour ago with pretty little Miss Wilson,-you know, the one in the cottage down on the sh.o.r.e,-and the last I saw of Bob he was escorting her home. I"m afraid we shall have to give him up for to-night."
"That"s too bad," said Henry Burns, solemnly, as though some grievous misfortune had come upon Tom"s chum. "And the worst of it is, it may last all summer. Well, Bob will miss a very pleasant surprise-party to Colonel Witham, to say nothing of the spread. That, by the way, is stowed away in those baskets over behind the bed and the wash-stand,-but, first, we"ve got to clear the coast of Colonel Witham."
"We"re yours to command, Henry," replied George Warren. "Tell us what to do."
"Well, in the first place," said Henry Burns, opening one of his windows that led out on to the veranda, as he spoke, "the rest of you just listen as hard as ever you can at my door, while George and I make a brief visit to the colonel"s room. If you hear footsteps, just pound on the wall, so we can get back in time. It"s pretty certain he won"t be here, though, until we are ready for him. He hasn"t missed a night in weeks in getting to bed exactly at a quarter past ten o"clock. He"s as regular as a steamboat; always on time. And he"s a good deal like a steamboat, too, for he snores like a fog-horn all night long."
Henry Burns and George Warren disappeared through the window and were gone but a moment, when they reappeared, each bearing in one hand a lamp from the colonel"s room.
"The colonel is always talking about economy," explained Henry Burns, "so I am not going to let him burn any oil to-night, if I can help it. My lamps happen to need filling,-I"ve borrowed an extra one for this occasion, and so, you see, I don"t intend to waste any of the colonel"s oil by throwing it away. I"ll see that not a drop of the colonel"s oil is wasted."
Henry Burns carefully proceeded to pour the oil from each lamp which he and George Warren had brought from the colonel"s room into those in his own room.
"There," he said, "there"s enough oil in each of those wicks to burn for several minutes, so the colonel will have a little light to start in on.
But we don"t want to return his lamps empty, and so I"ll just fill them up again. I"m sure the colonel would approve of this economy."
And Henry Burns carefully refilled the colonel"s lamps from his water-pitcher.
"It won"t burn very well," he said. "But I"m sure it looks better."
"Now, we"ll just take these back again," he continued, addressing George Warren. "And there"s another little matter we want to arrange while we are in there. The colonel is always finding fault with the housemaids.
Now we"ll see if we can"t improve on their work."
Again the two boys disappeared, while the remaining three stood watch against the colonel"s sudden appearance.
Once in the colonel"s room, Henry Burns seized hold of the bedclothes and threw them over the foot-board. Then he s.n.a.t.c.hed out three of the slats from the middle of the bed, replacing them with three slender sticks, which he had brought from his own room.
"Those will do to support the bedclothes and the mattress," he explained, "though I"m really afraid they would break if any one who was kind of heavy should put his weight on them." Then he carefully replaced the mattress and the bedclothes, making up the colonel"s bed again in the most approved style, with his friend"s a.s.sistance.
"You take notice," he said to George Warren, as he opened a closet door in the colonel"s room, "that I am careful to destroy nothing of the colonel"s property. I might have sawed these slats in two, and left them just hanging so they would support the bedclothes, and would not have been any more trouble; but, being of a highly conscientious nature, I carefully put the colonel"s property away, where it can be found later and restored."
"I"m afraid the colonel wouldn"t appreciate your thoughtfulness," said George Warren.
"Alas, I"m afraid not," said Henry Burns. "But that"s often the reward of those who try to look after another"s interests. However, I"ll put these slats in this closet, shut and lock the door, and put the key here on the mantelpiece, just behind this picture. It would be just as easy to hide the key, but I don"t think that would be right, do you?"
"Certainly not," laughed George Warren.
"There," said Henry Burns, taking a final survey of everything. "We"ve done all we can, I"m sure, to provide for the colonel"s comfort. If he chooses to find fault with it, it will surely be from force of habit."
They took their departure by way of the colonel"s window, closing it after them, and quickly rejoined their companions in the next room.
"I deeply regret," said Henry Burns to his guests, "that this banquet cannot begin at once. But we should surely be interrupted by the colonel, and, on the whole, I think it is best to wait until the colonel has taken his departure for the night from that room,-which I feel sure he will do, when the situation dawns fully upon him.
"It also pains me," he added, "to be obliged to invite you all to make yourselves uncomfortable in that closet for a short time. At least, you will hear all that is going on in the colonel"s room, for the part.i.tion is thin between that and his room. So you will have to be careful and make no noise. I feel quite certain that the colonel will make me a sudden call soon after he retires, if not before, and he really wouldn"t approve of your being here. He"s likely to have a decidedly unpleasant way of showing his disapproval, too."
"I think we can a.s.sure our kind and thoughtful host that we fully appreciate the situation," said Arthur Warren, gravely, "and will be pleased to comply with his suggestion to withdraw. Come on, boys, let"s get in. It"s after ten now, and time is getting short."
"You take the key with you," said Henry Burns, "and lock the door on the inside. It"s just an extra precaution; but I can say I don"t know who has the key, if anything happens. I won"t know which one of you takes it."
The four boys stowed themselves away in the stuffy closet, turned the key in the lock, and waited. Henry Burns quickly divested himself of his clothing, put a bowl of water beside his bed, placed a clean white handkerchief near it, set a lamp near by on a chair, turned it down so that it burned dim, unlocked his door so that it could be opened readily, and jumped into bed.
He did not have long to wait. Promptly at a quarter past ten o"clock the heavy, lumbering steps of the corpulent colonel were heard, as he came up the hallway. The colonel was puffing with the exertion which it always cost him to climb the stairs, and muttering, as was his custom when anything displeased him.
"Suppose they"ll bang away on that old piano half the night," he exclaimed, as he pa.s.sed Henry Burns"s door. "And every light burning till midnight. How do they expect me to make any money, if they go on this way?"
He opened the door to his room and went inside, locking it after him.
Henry Burns pressed his ear close to the wall and listened.
The colonel, still talking angrily to himself, scratched a match and lighted one of the lamps. Then he divested himself of his collar and tie, threw his coat and waistcoat on a chair, and reseated himself, to take off his boots.
All at once they heard him utter a loud exclamation of disgust.
"What on earth is the matter with that lamp?" he cried. "That comes of having hired help from the city. Never look after things, unless you keep right after them. How many times have I spoken about having these lamps filled every day!"
The colonel scratched a match. "Hulloa," he exclaimed, "it"s full, after all. Well, I see, the wick hasn"t been trimmed. There"s always something wrong." The colonel proceeded to sc.r.a.pe the wick. Then he scratched another match. The wick sputtered as he held the match to it.
"Confound the thing!" yelled the colonel, now utterly out of temper. "The thing"s bewitched. Where"s that other lamp? Oh, there it is. We"ll see if that will burn. I"ll discharge that housemaid to-morrow."
He scratched still another match, held it to the wick of the other lamp, and was evidently satisfied with that, for they heard him replace the lamp-chimney and go on with his undressing.
In a few minutes more there came another eruption from the colonel.
"There goes the other one," he yelled. "I know what"s the matter.
Somebody"s been fooling with those lamps. I"ll make "em smart for it."
The colonel unscrewed the part of the lamp containing the wick, took the bowls of the lamps, one by one, over to his window, opened them, and poured the contents of the lamps out upon the veranda.