The High School Boys' Training Hike Part 8

d.i.c.k rejoined.

"But what are we going to do now?" yawned Hazy, as they sat about under the light of two lanterns.

"Go to bed," declared Greg.

"Hooray! That's the ticket that I vote," announced Hazy.

"I was just thinking of that mean lawyer we heard about to-day,"

Reade remarked.

"I was thinking of the same matter, but more about the poor old peddler," d.i.c.k stated. "That poor old fellow! I'll wager he has had a hard time all through life, and that he's still wondering why it all had to happen. How old would you say Mr. Hinman is, Tom?"

"He'll never have a seventieth birthday again," replied Reade thoughtfully. "My! A man at that age ought not to have to bother with working. It's pitiful. It's a shame!"

"Maybe he finds his only happiness in work," Darrin suggested.

"I have known old people like that."

By this time Dan had taken one of the lanterns into the tent, and was undressing. Dave soon followed, then Greg and Hazelton.

"Do you want to take a little walk down to the road, where we can get a better look at the sky?" d.i.c.k proposed to Reade. "We ought to take a squint at the weather."

"That will suit me," Tom nodded, so away they strolled toward the road.

"If you fellows stay away from camp long, don't you be mean enough to talk, or make any other noise when you get back to the tent,"

Darrin called after them.

Down by the road there was a breeze blowing, and it was cooler.

"I'd like to bring my cot down this way," Tom suggested.

"There's no law against it," d.i.c.k smiled. "The owner's permission extended in a general way to all the land right around here."

"Will you bring your cot, too?" Tom asked.

"Certainly."

So, before any of the other fellows were asleep, d.i.c.k and Tom reentered the tent to get their folding cots and bedding.

"Cooler down by the road, is it?" asked Darrin wistfully. "Then I'm sorry you didn't find it out before I undressed."

"We'll sleep in our clothes," d.i.c.k replied. "Come along, Tom, and give the infant cla.s.s a chance to get to sleep."

After lying, fully dressed on their cots, which they placed within ten feet of the road, d.i.c.k and Tom found themselves so wide awake that they lay chatting for some moments.

At last Reade mumbled his answers; next his unmistakably deep breathing indicated that he was asleep. Prescott thereupon turned over on his side and dozed off.

It was shortly after their first few moments of sleep had pa.s.sed that a noise in the road close by awoke both boys.

d.i.c.k sat up leaning on one elbow, listening. Someone was coming toward them.

As the stranger came closer, d.i.c.k, his eyes seeing well in the dark, made out the unmistakable form of Reuben Hinman, the peddler.

"What's he doing out here at this hour of the night, and on foot?"

wondered d.i.c.k Prescott half aloud.

"Eh? What?" asked Reade in a low, drowsy voice, as he opened his eyes.

"It's Mr. Hinman, the peddler," Prescott whispered to his chum.

"But I wonder what's wrong with him?"

"I wonder, too," Reade a.s.sented. "One thing is certain; something has happened to him."

For Reuben Hinman half-lurched, half-staggered along, yet his gait did not suggest intoxication. He moved, rather, as one who is dazed with trouble.

The old man was sobbing, too, with a sound that was pitiful to hear; as though some great grief were clutching at his heart.

CHAPTER V

DAVE DOES SOME GOOD WORK

"Good evening, Mr. Hinman!" called d.i.c.k softly.

The old man started, affrighted.

"Who---who calls?" he quavered.

"One of the boys you talked with, this noon."

"Where are you?"

"Here," answered d.i.c.k, throwing his blanket aside, rising and stepping toward the old man, who, more bent than ever, was shaking as though from fright. "Don't be afraid of us, sir. Can we help you in anything?"

"I am afraid not," replied the peddler, then leaned against a tree-trunk, staring, as he tried to stifle his sobs.

"What has happened, sir?" asked Tom Reade, also stepping forward.

"I've been robbed!" replied the old man, in a broken voice.

"Robbed?" repeated d.i.c.k. "Do you mean that some villains have stolen the goods from your wagon?"

"No, no!" replied the old man, with sudden, unlooked for vehemence.

"I've been robbed, I tell you---my money stolen!"

"Money?" asked Tom in surprise. "How much was taken from you?"