Prescott thereupon turned over on his side and dozed off.
It was shortly after their first few moments of sleep had passed that a noise in the road close by awoke both boys.
Dick sat up leaning on one elbow, listening.

Someone was coming toward them.
As the stranger came closer, Dick, his eyes seeing well in the dark, made out the unmistakable form of Reuben Hinman, the peddler.
"What's he doing out here at this hour of the night, and on foot ?" wondered Dick Prescott half aloud.
"Eh?
What ?" asked Reade in a low, drowsy voice, as he opened his eyes.
"It's Mr.Hinman, the peddler," Prescott whispered to his chum.
"But I wonder what's wrong with him ?" "I wonder, too," Reade assented.

"One thing is certain; something has happened to him." For Reuben Hinman half-lurched, half-staggered along, yet his gait did not suggest intoxication.

He moved, rather, as one who is dazed with trouble.
The old man was sobbing, too, with a sound that was pitiful to hear; as though some great grief were clutching at his heart..