Bernard Brooks' Adventures: The Experience of a Plucky Boy

“He said that he was walking in his sleep.”

“But what motive could he possibly have? It looks unaccountable.”

“I can’t understand it myself, but I think he was acting under instructions from my guardian.”

“What reason have you for thinking so?”

In reply Bernard produced the fragment of a letter which he had picked up in the stateroom.

“This certainly does look suspicious. Have you any idea why it is that your guardian wishes to get rid of you?”

“Yes, sir. I met a gentleman before I left New York who knew my father. He tells me that he is certain that my father left property, and he thinks that Mr. McCracken has it in his possession, and is resolved to keep it.”

“It is not unlikely. Does your guardian know that you have any suspicion of this?”

“He knows that I met an old friend of my father’s, and he may suspect that Mr. Franklin has told me this.”

“You certainly are in a difficult position,” said Nelson Sturgis thoughtfully. “Has anything happened since you arrived in Liverpool?”

In reply Bernard told the incident of the night before.

“I can’t understand why he wished to enter my room,” he concluded. “He would not dare attempt my life. Do you think so?”

“It is hard to tell what to think. If you have any fear as to sleeping in your own room to-night, you will be welcome to share mine. I occupy No. 15.”

“I will remember it, sir.”

When, at ten o’clock Bernard went up to bed, he was struck as he entered the chamber by one significant circumstance. The bureau had disappeared!

CHAPTER XIX. PROFESSOR PUFFERS DISCOMFITURE

When Bernard noticed the disappearance of the bureau he understood at once the alarming significance of the step which Professor Puffer had taken, for he felt sure that it was at his instigation that this article of furniture had been removed. It might have been carried into the professor’s own chamber through the connecting door, but this was of minor importance. Enough that he, Bernard, no longer had anything to serve as a barrier and prevent the unauthorized intrusion of his traveling companion into his room.

Bernard sat down on the bed and began to consider thoughtfully what he should do. Did the professor mean to do him harm? This was what he asked himself. Evidently he intended to come into the room. Bernard did not care to run the risk of his presence. He decided to sleep elsewhere.

He opened the door into the hall noiselessly, and proceeding to the room of the Boston drummer, he knocked.

The door was opened by Mr. Sturgis in person.

“Well?” he said inquiringly.

Bernard told him of the discovery he had made.

“I don’t dare to sleep in the room to-night,” he concluded, “for I am sure the professor would make me a visit.”

“You are no doubt right. The case seems very mysterious. I don’t see on what pretext he could have induced the landlord to remove the bureau. English people (and landlords are no exception) are very averse to changes, even of trifling character.”

“At any rate the change has been made,” said Bernard. “Perhaps he has not consulted the landlord at all, but simply removed the bureau into his own chamber.”

“Perhaps so, but we must take things as they are. It is clear that it won’t do to sleep in the room. I am glad to be able to offer you a bed. There are two in this room, as you see.”.

“Thank you, Mr. Sturgis. I will accept your kind offer.”

“Then, as it is late, we had better go to bed at once, so as to get a good night’s rest. I should like to see the face of the professor when he opens the door and finds that the bird has flown.”

Bernard laughed.

“I should like to see it myself,” he said.

We will now go back to Mr. Puffer.

He retired rather earlier than Bernard, and as he lay down he said to himself, with a peculiar smile, “The boy won’t be able to keep me out to-night He may think himself smart, but he is not smart enough to baffle the plans of Ezra Puffer.”

Professor Puffer had the faculty of sleeping for as short or long a time as he chose. He set himself for a two hours’ nap, and in five minutes he was sound asleep.

About twelve o’clock he awoke.

He was at first bewildered, but quickly recalled to mind what he had arranged to do.

He rose and lit the candle which stood upon a. small table in the center of the room. Then, in his stocking feet, he noiselessly approached the door.

He turned the key in the lock and opened the door leading into Bernard’s room raising the candle he drew near the bed and looked to see the recumbent figure of his young traveling companion. To his intense surprise the bed was unoccupied.

“What does it mean?” he asked himself in bewilderment. “Where can be the boy be?”

His expression of perplexity was fast succeeded by one of rage as he came to the conclusion that Bernard, on discovering the absence of the bureau, had deliberately resolved to abandon the room.

“He is the most impudent and audacious boy I ever met,” reflected the professor. “I don’t wonder Mr. McCracken calls him ‘a bad lot.’”

Of course there was nothing to do but return to his own chamber. But his exit was not to be a peaceful one. He had scarcely started for the door when there was a rushing sound, and a huge dog sprang forward and fastened his teeth in the professor’s leg. Such an attack under the circumstances would have startled even a brave man, and Professor Puffer was not a brave man.

In the indistinct light he could not at once distinguish the figure of his assailant and what it was that had attacked him. He had a suspicion that it was some contrivance of Bernard.

“Let go, or I will kill you!” he yelled.

But his threat produced no effect upon the huge, shaggy dog who had been lying under the bed, and had been aroused by the entrance of Professor Puffer, whom he evidently felt to be an unauthorized intruder and a suspicious character.

As the reader may be as much puzzled as was the professor himself, I will explain that when Bernard opened the door to leave his chamber, the dog, who had been walking through the entry, made his way into it without the notice of the boy. He had stretched himself out under the four poster, and was sleeping the sleep of a thoroughly tired dog when he was aroused by the stealthy entrance of the professor.

With a dog’s instinct he fastened his teeth in the unprotected calf of the intruder, and inflicted a wound decidedly painful.

When Professor Puffer, lowering the candle, saw his foe, he was frightened more, than ever.

“This is a trick of that rascally boy!” he concluded. “Get out, you brute!”

With this exclamation he drew his leg away from the dog’s grip, and gave him a vicious kick.

But the dog’s fighting spirit was aroused. He took a new hold, and growled in a manner that sent terror to the heart of the unhappy professor. Drops of perspiration came out upon his forehead, and his heart was sick with fear. He felt helpless in the powerful jaws of the dog.