“Lots of good your remembering does now,” grunted Nelson. “If you hadn’t got to fussing with those pies----!”
“Thought you was in Jericho, did yer?” asked the shopkeeper with a chuckle. They nodded soberly. “Well, well, that’s a good joke, ain’t it?”
“Is there any place here where we can get something to eat?” asked Bob.
“I guess not, but there’s a hotel about a mile along. I guess you can get something there.”
So they prevailed on him to go to the door with them and point out the way.
“It’s on your way to Jericho,” said the storekeeper, pointing out the road. “You turn down that first road there and then bear to the left until you come to a big white farmhouse. Then you turn to the right and keep on about half a mile, or maybe a mile, and the Center House is just a little beyond. It’s a brown house with lots of windows and a barn.”
“Can’t help finding it,” muttered Dan sarcastically.
They were rather quiet as they passed through the village and took the turn indicated. From one house came an enticing odor of onions, and Dan leaned up against a telephone pole and pretended to weep. That mile was as long as two, but in the end they came into sight of the “brown house with lots of windows and a barn.” But it didn’t look very hospitable. The windows were closed and shuttered, and the barn appeared to be in the last stages of decay. With sinking hearts they climbed the steps and beat a tattoo on the front door. All was silence.
They all took a hand at beating on that door, but it didn’t do the least bit of good. The place was empty and closed up. Nelson sat down on the top step and stared sadly across the country road. Tom joined him.
“Wish I had some more of that pie,” he muttered.
Bob produced the map, which was already getting frayed at the corners, and opened it out.
“The best thing to do,” he said, “is to keep on till we find a farmhouse or something, and beg some food.”
“I could eat raw dog,” said Dan. “Any houses in sight on that lying map of yours?”
“About--er--about two or three, I should say.”
“Can’t be done,” said Dan decidedly. “I couldn’t walk two miles if there was a thousand dollars at the end of it.”
“I could do it if there was a ham sandwich at the end of it,” said Nelson.