Meanwhile M. Bourdon slept the sleep of the just—or the unjust—not dreaming of the loss his establishment had sustained. He did not open his eyes till five o'clock.
Usually at that hour Francois was stirring, as he had morning duties to perform. But M. Bourdon did not hear him bustling around as usual. At first this did not strike him, but after awhile he began to wonder why.
"The lazy dog!" he said to himself. "He is indulging himself this morning, and his work will suffer."
He went to the door of his chamber and called "Francois!"
Francois slept in an upper room, but still the asylum was not a lofty building, and he should have heard.
[250]
"He must be fast asleep, as usual," grumbled M. Bourdon. "I must go up and rouse him. It would be well if I had a horsewhip."
Slipping on a part of his clothing, the doctor crept up stairs.
He knocked at the door of his dilatory servant.
"Francois! Francois, I say. Are you dead?"
There was no answer.
"I suppose he has locked his door," muttered the doctor, as he tried the latch.
But no! the door opened, and, to his dismay, the room was empty. The bed had not been disturbed.
The doctor's face was dark with anger.
"The ingrate has left me, after all. He has gone to his child, who is not sick at all, I dare say. Well, he will repent it. I will not take him back."
Here the doctor paused. It would be exceedingly inconvenient to lose Francois, who, besides being a capable man, accepted very small pay.
"At any rate I will lower his wages!" he [251] said. "He shall regret the way he has served me."
It was a temporary inconvenience. Still there was an outside man whom he could impress into the service as a substitute, and in a day or two Francois would be glad to return. It was not, perhaps, so serious a matter, after all.
But M. Bourdon changed his mind when he found the front door unlocked.
"Who had escaped, if any?"
This was the question he asked himself. In great haste he went from one room to another, but all seemed to be occupied. It was only when he opened Ben's room that he ascertained that the one whom he would most regret to lose had decamped. Ben's bed, too, was but little disturbed. He had slept on the outside, if he had slept at all, but not within the bed, as was but too evident.
"Has any one seen the boy?" demanded M. Bourdon of an outdoor servant who slept outside, but was already on duty.
"Not I, Monsieur le Docteur."
"Then he must have escaped with Francois! Put my horse in the carriage at once."
[252]
Ten minutes later M. Bourdon was on his way to the cottage of Francois.
Fifteen minutes before he arrived Francois had aroused our young hero.
"It is time to get up, little monsieur," he said. "In half an hour the cars will start."
Refreshed by his sound sleep, Ben sprang up at once—he did not need to dress—and was ready for the adventures of the day.
"Where is the station, Francois?" he said.
"I will go with monsieur."
"No; if the doctor should come, delay him so that he cannot overtake me."
"Perhaps it is best."
Ben followed the directions of his humble friend, and soon brought up at the station. He purchased a third-class ticket for a place fifty miles away, and waited till it was time for the train to start.
Meanwhile M. Bourdon had driven up to the cottage of Francois.
The door was opened to him by Francois himself.
"Where is that boy? Did he come away with you?" he asked, abruptly.
[253]
"What boy?" asked Francois, vacantly.
"The one who came a few days since. You know who I mean."
Francois shrugged his shoulders.
"Is he gone?" he asked.
"Of course he is, fool."
Just then the wife of Francois came to the door. Unfortunately her husband had not warned her, nor did she know that Ben had been an inmate of the asylum.
"Where is the boy who came here last night with your husband?" asked M. Bourdon, abruptly.
"Gone to the station," answered the woman, unsuspiciously.
The doctor jumped into his carriage, and drove with speed to the station.