CHAPTER XIII
The four little Bunkers had finished their dinner before their father and Captain Ben had started to eat. Tad Munson, the "apple boy," had also completed his meal, and as the man came running in from the road, calling out that something was wrong down where the automobile had been left, Russ, Rose, Vi and Laddie, together with Tad, started after Mr. Bunker and Captain Ben.
"What you s'pose it is?" asked Vi, as she pattered along with her twin brother, holding his hand.
"I don't know," answered Russ, who was running with Rose. "This is no time to ask a lot of questions, Vi."
"I didn't ask alot. I asked onlyone," retorted the little girl. "And I think you might answer that."
"I would if I knew the answer," said Russ, smiling a little; "but I don't. We'll run along and see what's happening."
"Maybe somebody is trying to take the auto," suggested Tad, who had made good friends with the four little Bunkers.
"I guess they couldn't take Captain Ben's car unless they put on a new wheel and did a lot of other things," said Russ. "It was pretty badly smashed and they couldn't have fixed it so soon."
"No, I guess not," agreed Tad. "Anyhow, something's happening."
This was true enough. As the children ran out of the gate and down the road after the man who had given the alarm, their father, and Captain Ben, they could hear through the quiet, still country air a loud shouting around the bend in the road where the auto was in the ditch, about a quarter of a mile away.
As the little Bunkers and the others hurried away from his house Mr. Brown was heard to say:
"I knew it! You can't tell me autos are safe! Something's always happening to 'em! Give me a horse every time!"
A little later Russ, Rose and the others came within sight of the place where Captain Ben's car had gone into the ditch. The children saw their father and Captain Ben approaching a crowd of men, who surrounded the car.
"What'd I tell you?" cried Tad. "Some thieves are trying to take your auto!"
"It does look so," agreed Russ, for certainly there was quite a throng about the machine, and all the men seemed much excited.
Suddenly, however, the crowd about the stalled car parted, and out from among them ran a mule, who brayed loudly and kicked up his heels as though he were having a good time.
"Oh, look! Look!" cried Vi. "Look at the funny mule!"
"He's a circus mule!" added Laddie. "See him kick up his heels! I could think of a funny riddle about him if I had time!"
"What do you s'pose is the matter?" asked Rose. "Were they trying to make the mule do some tricks, Russ?"
"I guess the mule did tricks without any making," her brother answered. "Oh, look at him kick up his heels!"
Indeed the canal animal was flying around in a circle, every now and then rising up on his forefeet and letting fly with his hind ones, and the men took good care to keep out of his way.
Then, with a loud bray, the mule started over toward the canal bank, and one of the men followed him, shouting to the animal to stop.
By this time Russ and the other children had reached the place of excitement. They saw their father and Captain Ben laughing, and then they knew nothing serious had happened.
"What was it? What made the mule kick up so funny? Was he a circus mule, and did he run back to the circus?" asked Vi, getting in all the questions possible in as short a time as she could.
"No, he wasn't exactly a circus mule, but he acted like one," her father answered. "Did any of you get kicked?" he inquired of the men around the automobile.
"No; but I come pretty near on to it," answered one of them. "He sure was a high performer."
"What happened?" asked Russ of Captain Ben.
"Yes, tell us," murmured Rose.
"As nearly as I can find out," said Captain Ben, "when your father and I went to dinner, after getting the auto as far out of the ditch as we could, some of the men from the canal decided they would hitch one of their mules to the car and see if he could pull it out. Mules are very strong, you know."
"Are they strong kickers, too?" asked Laddie.
"Indeed they are, very strong," Captain Ben answered. "Well, as I said, while we were down at Mrs. Brown's, getting our dinner, the men tried to hitch the mule to the auto that was still partly in the ditch. But the mule didn't like the work, for he began to kick out, and finally he broke loose and did as he pleased."
"That's the racket I heard as I was coming along the road," said the man who had run to Mr. Brown's to give the alarm. "I heard a mule braying and men shouting, and a boy told me about the auto accident a little while before. This boy said the man who owned the car was at Brown's boarding house, so I ran there to tell you."
"I'm glad you did," said Daddy Bunker. "I'm sorry there was so much trouble, but I'm glad no one was hurt. I guess we can't depend on a mule for hauling our car out of the ditch."
"I guess not," said the canal boat man who had proposed using the long-eared animal. "General Sherman is all right, but he doesn't like to pull automobiles."
"Who's General Sherman?" asked Russ.
"That's my mule's name," answered the canal boat man.
"You children had better run back to Mr. Brown's now," said Daddy Bunker to Russ and the others. "We'll see what we can do toward getting the car out, though I don't see how we can travel any farther to-day. It means another night on the road."
"Oh, it's fun! I like it," said Rose.
"It will be all right if nobody walks in his sleep," added Russ.
"But I want to see mother and Mun Bun and Margy," said Vi, in a sad little voice.
"We'll see them to-morrow," promised her father. "And I talked to mother on the telephone, so I know she's all right, and she knows we're all right."
Vi looked more cheerful on hearing this, and soon she and the others were ready to start back to Mr. Brown's pleasant farmhouse.
"Aren't you coming back with us, Daddy, and finish your dinner?" Laddie asked his father.
"We had enough," said Mr. Bunker.
"You didn't eat your pie," said Laddie.
"Well, then, I'll take two pieces at supper," said Mr. Bunker, and he laughed with Captain Ben.
The rest of the day passed quickly for the four little Bunkers and Tad Munson, who played with them around the barn and the farmhouse. Tad seemed happier, now that he had been promised a ride almost to the town near Grand View where he wanted to go. But with all his good-nature, there seemed to be something strange about this boy who had taken apples because he was hungry.
"I have my own ideas about that lad," is what Russ heard Mr. Brown saying to his wife when milking time came.
"What do you think," asked Mrs. Brown.
"I think he's been in some kind of trouble," went on the farmer. "Too bad, it is, for he seems like a nice lad."
Russ wondered what could be the matter with Tad.
Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben came up the road from the ditch where they had been working on the automobile. They looked tired, and they were very dirty.
"Did you get it out of the ditch?" asked Russ of his father.
"Yes," was the answer, "it's out of the ditch. And we managed to get it to a garage where we hope it will be fixed so we can go on in the morning."
"If we don't get to Grand View pretty soon," said Captain Ben, "I'm afraid the six little Bunkers will think I'm a pretty poor sort of a vacation planner. I haven't given you a very good time yet."
"Oh, we've had lots of fun!" Rose hastened to say.
"And the mule was awful funny the way he kicked up his heels," laughed Vi.
"I wish I could think of a riddle about him," said Laddie.
The others laughed at the little fellow, and then, when Daddy Bunker and Captain Ben had washed off as much of the oil and grease as possible, they all sat down to supper. Tad was with the four little Bunkers.
"Will you be ready to ride back to Grand View with us in the morning?" asked Captain Ben of the strange boy.
"Oh, yes, thank you," was the answer. "I want to get to Avalon as soon as I can."
After supper the visitors sat out on the broad porch in the pleasant shadows of evening. Mr. Brown was telling some simple riddles he knew, and Laddie was trying to guess them, when, suddenly, the farmer started from his chair and looked down toward the orchard.
"What's the matter?" asked his wife. "Do you see that red-haired boy after our fruit?"
"Well," said the farmer slowly, "it's a little too dark to see if he has red hair or not, but there's somebody down in my orchard. I'll go and take a look."
"Better be careful," warned his wife.
"I'm not afraid," was the answer, and he stepped quietly from the porch and walked off in the darkness.
"Maybe we'd better go with him," suggested Captain Ben. But just as he and Daddy Bunker were starting to follow the farmer, Mr. Brown came back.
"I reckon it was only some tramps sneaking around," he said. "But I'll turn old dog Major loose, and he'll drive 'em off if they try to rob my hen roost."
Russ, Rose and the others were so sleepy that they were sent to bed early by their father. Russ and Rose wondered if they would be disturbed as they had been the previous night by the little River children.
"You don't walk in your sleep, do you?" asked Russ of Tad, who was to have a little room to himself.
"No, I never did that I know of," he answered.
The night passed quietly, as far as the Bunker children knew, and they all slept soundly. Rose did wake up once during the night to get Vi a drink, and it was then that Rose heard the distant barking of a dog. But as this often happened, even at home, she did not wonder at it, and she soon went to sleep again.
The sun was shining brightly when she and the others awoke.
"Well, I didn't hear anybody walk in his sleep," said Russ with a laugh, as he came downstairs.
"All I heard was a dog barking," declared Rose.
"Where's Tad?" asked Captain Ben.
No one seemed to know. He had been given a room on the third floor.
"Guess I'd better go up and call him," said Captain Ben. "He may have overslept and we want to get an early start—that is, we do if the garage men have my car fixed. I'll call Tad."
He went upstairs, but came down with a queer look in his face.
"That's funny," he said.
"What is?" asked Daddy Bunker.
"Tad isn't in his room," answered Captain Ben. "And, what's more, his bed hasn't been slept in. Tad is missing!"