Comrades of the Saddle | Page 3

as a "whoa!" sounded from the
yard.
Quickly Larry picked up a lantern, and, followed by all but his mother,
went out to help unhitch the horses and take them into the barn.
"What's been going on?" demanded the farmer as the others joined him.
"I heard the rifle shot."
Eagerly they all started to tell.
"Don't all speak at once," interposed Mr. Alden. "You're talking so loud
and so fast I can't understand a word. Tom, suppose you explain?"
Excitedly the youngest of the brothers poured forth the tale.
"A wolf in Bramley, eh? Well, well! It's a good thing you boys were so
near home. This is sure a great day for happenings. My sons get chased
into their own dooryard and I----"
But as though to arouse their curiosity, the farmer did not finish his
sentence.
"You what?" asked Larry.
"Never mind now. Put the horses up. You won't have to feed them;
they're too hot. Give them a little hay and then come in to supper."
Knowing it was useless to try to get their father to satisfy their curiosity,
for Mr. Alden, though a kindly man, was what his neighbors called "set

in his ways," Tom and Larry ran to the barn to open the door, while the
hired men followed with the horses.
After rubbing the animals down and giving them some hay, the four
returned to the house.
But not until the supper was finished did the farmer deign to impart his
news. Then, tilting back in his chair, he looked at his wife and asked:
"How would you like to take the boys to Scotland for the summer,
ma?"
"To Scotland?" repeated Mrs. Alden, as though scarcely believing her
ears. "Theodore Alden, are you going crazy? What are you talking
about?"
"About going to Scotland," answered the farmer, grinning. "And I'm
not crazy."
At the mention of the trip, Larry and Tom looked at their parent and
then at each other in dismay, for they had planned a different sort of
way for spending the summer. But their attention was quickly drawn to
their father again.
"I've got to go to Scotland and we might as well all go," he was saying.
"The hired men can run the farm for the summer."
Lapsing into silence as he watched the effect of his words, Mr. Alden
enjoyed the looks of surprise and curiosity, then continued:
"When I got to Bramley this morning I found a letter from a man
named Henry Sargent, a Glasgow lawyer. He said my uncle, Thomas
Darwent, had died, leaving me the only heir to his estates. Just how
much money this means I don't know. He said it might be ten thousand
pounds."
"Phew! that's fifty thousand dollars," interposed Larry, excitedly.
"Just so," returned his father. "It may be more. I can't make out whether

that's the amount of cash or if that's what it will come to when the land
and houses are sold."
"You can write and find out," suggested Mrs. Alden.
"I can write, but I doubt if I can find out," chuckled the farmer. "Those
lawyer chaps use such high-sounding words, you can't tell what they
mean. If Uncle Darwent made me his heir, I'm going to see I get all
there Is to get. No Scotchman is going to cheat Theodore Alden out of
what's his. Soon's I'd made up my mind to that, I drove over to Olmsted
and made arrangements to sail from New York on Saturday."
"Saturday? Why that's only three days off!" protested Mrs. Alden.
"Well, it'll only take a night and part of a day to get to New York.
That'll give you a day and a half to get ready, ma."
The thought of a trip to Scotland delighted Mrs. Alden, and she
immediately began to plan how she could get the boys, her husband
and herself ready in such a short space of time.
But Larry and Tom showed no signs of enthusiasm.
Noticing their silence, their father exclaimed:
"Don't you boys want to go? I never knew you so quiet before when a
trip was mentioned."
"But the ball game with Husted is on Saturday," said Larry, giving
voice to the thought uppermost in his mind. Then, as though he realized
that it was foolish to compare a trip to Scotland with a game of baseball,
he added: "Besides, Tom and I were planning--that is, we were going to
ask you if we couldn't go out to Tolopah and spend the summer with
Horace and Bill Wilder on their ranch."
With this announcement of a plan which the brothers had discussed
over and over, wondering how they could bring it about, the boys
anxiously watched their father's face.

"So that's how the wind blows, eh?" he commented. "Well,