The Toll-Gate Read Online Free PDF Page B

round-eyed.
    "Put a sack over his head, of course, and hand him to the nearest constable."
    "You would!" Ben drew an audible breath.
    "Certainly I would. Does he come here often?"
    "N-no. Leastways, I dunno. After it's dark, he comes. I dunno how many times. Onct, there was two on 'em. I woke up, and heard them, talking to me dad."
    "What were they talking about?"
    Ben shook his head. "I didn't hear nothing but just voices. I got right under me blanket, 'cos I knew it was him."
    By this time it seemed fairly certain to John that the gatekeeper's disappearance was connected in some way with Ben's mysterious bugbear; and it seemed still more certain that he was engaged upon nefarious business. What this might be John had not the remotest conjecture, and it was plainly useless to question Ben further. He got up, saying: "Well, it's high time you were under your blanket again. If anyone shouts gate, I'll attend to it, so you show me where your dad's bed is, and then be off to your own."
    "You can't open the gate!" said Ben, shocked. "You're a flash cove!"
    "Never mind what I am! You do what I tell you!"
    Thus adjured, Ben escorted him into the toll-office, from which access to the two other rooms was obtained. One of these, where Ben slept on a truckle-bed, contained stores, but the other was furnished with some degree of comfort, the bed even being provided with cotton sheets, and a faded patchwork quilt. The Captain, having no fancy for the gatekeeper's sheets, coolly stripped them off the bed, rolled them into a bundle, and tossed them into a corner of the room. He then stretched himself out on top of the blankets, pulled the quilt over himself, and blew out the candle. For a few minutes, before falling asleep, he wondered what he was going to do if the gatekeeper did not return that night. The proper course, which would be to report the man's absence, would seem unpleasantly like a betrayal of Ben; yet no other presented itself to him. But the Captain was never one to meet troubles halfway, and he very soon stopped frowning over this problem. After all, it was probable that before morning the gatekeeper would be back at his post. Stale-drunk, too, thought John, setting little store by Ben's assurance that his dad was not one to go on the mop.
     
    CHAPTER III.
    THE Captain slept soundly, and awoke to daylight, and the sound of voices. On getting up, and looking out of the little latticed window, he saw that Ben was holding open the gate for a herd of cows to pass through, and exchanging courtesies with the boy who was driving them. A fine autumn day had succeeded the night's downpour, and the mist still lay over the fields beyond the road. A glance at the watch which he had laid on the chair beside the bed informed John that it was half-past six. He strolled into the toll-office just as Ben shut the gate, and came in.
    With the daylight the worst of Ben's fears were laid to rest. He looked a different boy from the hag-ridden urchin of the previous evening; walked in whistling; and greeted the Captain with a grin.
    "Your dad not back?" John asked.
    The grin faded. "No. Likely he's piked."
    "Run away? Why should he?"
    "Well, if he ain't piked, p'raps he's gorn to roost," temporised Ben. "'Cos when he loped off, he told me to mind the gate for an hour, and he'd be back. What'll I do, gov'nor?"
    This question was uttered, not in a tone of misgiving, but in one of cheerful confidence. Ben looked enquiringly up into John's face, and John realised, ruefully, that his small protégé was reposing complete trust in his willingness and ability to settle the future satisfactorily for him.
    "Well, that's a problem which seems to hang in the hedge a trifle," he said. "We shall have to talk it over. But first I want a wash, and breakfast."
    "I got some bacon cut, and there's eggs, and a bit of beef," offered Ben, ignoring the first of the Captain's needs as a frivolity.
    "Excellent! Where's the pump?"
    "Out the back. But——"
    "Well, you