Part 8 (1/2)

The boys came slowly down from the gallery and mingled unnoticed with the throng. Bob was a little worried. He had not meant to humiliate the minister, but had counted on Captain Spark getting stuck to the chair. The captain, he knew, would make light of the prank. But it was no small matter to have done this thing to the clergyman.

”Going to supper?” asked Ted of Bob.

”No. I don't feel like eating. Guess I'll go home.”

But Bob's plan was frustrated. His mother, who had been looking for her son, caught sight of him.

”Oh, Bob!” she exclaimed. ”I hope none of the boys that you go with played that horrid trick on the minister! It was a very mean thing to do! But you had better have your supper. The table will soon be ready again.”

Bob did not have much appet.i.te. He was afraid of being discovered.

The chair, with the glue on it, had been taken to the cellar, and the minister had gone home to change his trousers. Captain Spark, who had begun to turn certain things over in his mind, approached Bob. He had a sharp eye, had the mariner, and, in looking closely at his relative's son, he saw a bit of evidence that Bob had not counted on. This was nothing more nor less than a big spot of glue on the lad's coat sleeve.

”What's this?” asked the seaman, pointing to the sticky place.

”I don't know. Glue--I guess,” replied Bob, turning pale.

”Glue, eh? Seems to be about as sticky as that on the minister's chair.”

At the mention of glue several persons about Bob and the captain looked curiously at them. Mrs. Henderson, who was just then pa.s.sing, carrying a big platter of baked beans, stopped to listen to what the seaman was saying.

”Yes, it's glue,” remarked the mariner. ”Just like that on the chair. Bob,” he asked suddenly, ”did you put that glue there?”

Now, with all his faults, Bob would never tell a lie. He regarded that as cowardly, and he was always willing to take whatever punishment was coming to him for his ”jokes.”

”Yes, captain,” he said in a low voice. ”I did it.”

”Ha! I thought so.”

”Bob Henderson!” exclaimed his mother, her face flus.h.i.+ng red with mortification. ”Did you play that horrid joke on the minister?”

”Yes, but I didn't mean to.”

”You didn't mean to?”

”No. I thought some one else was going to sit on that chair.”

”You thought some one else was? Why, that's just as bad--almost.

Who did you think would sit there?”

”Captain Spark!”

”You young rascal!” exclaimed the commander of the _Eagle_, but he did not seem very angry. ”So that was intended to anchor me down, eh? Well, I must look into this.”

”I thought you'd sit there,” went on Bob.

”So I was going to, but the minister made me change, as he's a little deaf on one side, and he wanted to ask me some questions about the Fiji Islanders.”

There was now quite a crowd around Bob, his mother, and the captain.