CHAPTER x.x.x.
JACK"S PRISONER.
For a second time Jack now travelled that woodland road under odd circ.u.mstances; the first occasion being that on which he himself had pulled in the shafts, while Link pushed behind. He laughed as he thought of that adventure, of which the present seemed a fitting sequel. Before, he had been obliged to go home without his horse; what a triumph it would now be to carry home the thief! But to do this, great care and vigilance would be necessary; and he calculated all the chances, and resolved just what he would do, should his captive attempt to escape.
The rogue, on the contrary, appeared contented with his lot.
"Young man," said he, "I can"t call your name, but let me say you improve upon acquaintance. This is galorious! better by a long chalk than a horseback gallop without a saddle. I suppose you will call for me with a barouche next time!"
"At all events, I may help you to free lodgings,--not up in a tree, either!" Jack said, as he touched up Snowfoot.
He had, of course, abandoned the idea of giving Mrs. Wiggett her noon-mark that day. But he could not think of pa.s.sing the "castle"
without stopping at the door.
"What will Vinnie say?" thought he, with a thrill of antic.i.p.ation. And it must be confessed that he felt no little pride at the prospect of showing his prisoner to Lord Betterson and the boys.
Descending the long declivity, the fellow was strangely silent, for one so rattle-brained, until the "castle" appeared in sight through an opening of the woods. "He"s plotting mischief," Jack thought. And when suddenly the rogue made a movement with his arms, Jack started, ready for a grapple.
"Don"t be excited; I"m only putting on my coat."
"All right," said Jack; and the garment was put on. "Anything else I can do for you?"
"I"m dying with thirst; they had nothing to drink at that tavern where you found me."
"May be we can get some water at this house," Jack said.
"Are you acquainted here?" the prisoner inquired, with a curious, sober face.
"Yes, well enough to ask for a gla.s.s of water." And Jack drove into the yard.
The rogue kept on his sober face, but seemed to be laughing prodigiously inside.
As Jack reined up to the door, Lill came out, clapped her hands with sudden surprise, and screamed, "O mother!" Then Vinnie appeared, her face radiant on seeing Jack, but changing suddenly at sight of his companion. Mrs. Betterson followed, and, perceiving the faces in the buggy, uttered a cry, tottered, and clung to Vinnie"s shoulder.
Link at the same time ran out from behind the house, dropped a dirty stick, wiped his hands on his trousers, and shouted, "Hullo! by sixty!
ye don"t say so!" while Rufe and Wad came rushing up from the barn. Jack had rather expected to produce a sensation,--not, however, until he should fairly have shown his prisoner; and this premature commotion puzzled him.
The rogue"s suppressed laughter was now bubbling freely; a frothy and reckless sort of mirth, without much body of joy to it.
"How are ye all?" he cried. "Don"t faint at sight of me, Aunt Carrie.
This is an unexpected pleasure!" and he bowed gayly to Vinnie.
"O Radcliff! you again? and in _this_ style!" said poor Caroline. "Where _did_ you come from?"
"From up a tree, at last accounts. Hullo, boys! I"d come down on my trotters, and hug you all round, but my friend here would be jealous."
Jack was confounded.
"Is _this_ your Cousin Rad?" he cried, as the boys crowded near. "I"m sorry to know it, for he"s the fellow who ran off with my horse. Where did _you_ ever see him before, Vinnie?"
"He is the one I told you about,--in Chicago," said Vinnie, astonished to find her waggish acquaintance, the elegant Radcliff Betterson, and this captive vagabond, the same person.
CHAPTER x.x.xI.
RADCLIFF.
Lord Betterson now came out of the house, calm and stately, but with something of the look in his eye, as he turned it upon his nephew, which Jack had observed when it menaced Peakslow at the gap of the fence.
"Ah, Radcliff! you have returned? Why don"t you alight?" And he touched his hat to Jack.
"Your nephew may tell you the reason, if he will," Jack replied.
"The long and the short of it is this," said Radcliff, betraying a good deal of trouble, under all his a.s.sumed carelessness: "When I was on my way home, a few weeks ago, this young man asked me to drive in some deer for him. He gave me his horse to ride. I made a mistake, and rode him too far."
"You, Radcliff!" said Lord Betterson, sternly; while Mrs. Betterson went into hysterics on Vinnie"s shoulder, and was taken into the house.
"We thought of Rad when you described him," Rufe said to Jack. "But we couldn"t believe he would do such a thing."
[Ill.u.s.tration: JACK AND HIS JOLLY PRISONER.]
""Twas the most natural thing in the world," Rad explained. "I was coming home because I was hard up. I didn"t steal the horse,--he was put into my hands; it was a breach of trust, that"s all you can make of it.
Necessity compelled me to dispose of him. With money in my pocket, what was the use of my coming home? I took my clothes out of p.a.w.n, and was once more a gentleman. Money all gone, I spouted my clothes again,--fell back upon this inexpensive rig,--took to the country, remembered I had a home, and was making for it, when this young man overtook me just now, and gave me a seat in his buggy."
"The matter appears serious," said Lord Betterson. "Am I to understand that you have taken my nephew prisoner?"
"He can answer that question," said Jack.
"Well, I suppose that is the plain English of it," replied Radcliff.
"Come, now, Uncle Lord! this ain"t the first sc.r.a.pe you"ve got me out of; fix it up with him, can"t you?"
"It is my duty to save the honor of the name; but you are bent on destroying it. Will you please to come into the house with my nephew, and oblige me?" Betterson said to Jack.
"Certainly, if you wish it," Jack replied. "Get down, Radcliff. Be quiet, Lion! I was never in so hard a place in my life," he said to the boys, as they followed Rad and his uncle into the house. "I never dreamed of his being your cousin!"
"He"s a wild fellow,--nothing very bad about him, only he"s just full of the Old Harry," said Rufe. "I guess father"ll settle it, somehow."
Meanwhile, Mrs. Betterson had retired to her room, where Vinnie was engaged, with fan and hartshorn, in restoring--not her consciousness, for that she had not lost, but her equanimity.
"Lavinia!" she said brokenly, at intervals, "Lavinia dear! don"t think I intended to deceive you. It was, perhaps, too much the ideal Radcliff I described to you,--the Betterson Radcliff, the better Betterson Radcliff, if I may so speak; for he is, after all, you know, a--but that is the agony of it! The name is disgraced forever! Fan me, Lavinia dear!"
"I don"t see how the act of one person should disgrace anybody else, even of the same name," Vinnie replied.
"But--a Betterson!" groaned Caroline. "My husband"s nephew! Brought back here like a reprobate! The hartshorn, Lavinia dear!"