I are going down to the village. He's going to leave his watch
to be repaired, and I've got to see Jed Muggs and settle with him for
the damage to his coach and horses"--here he looked sternly at Teddy,
who kept his eyes studiously on the tablecloth--"from the runaway. I'm
going, too, to put up a notice in the post-office, offering a reward to
any one who may find and return Uncle Aaron's papers.

"As for you boys, I want you to get some of the other boys together and
go over every foot of ground down near the river, where the
accident----"

"_Accident!_" sneered Aaron contemptuously.

"Where the accident happened," went on Mr. Rushton, taking no notice of
the interruption. "Look in every bush on both sides of the road. Slip on
your bathing suits under your other clothes, and if you can't find the
papers on land try to find them in the water.

"In most places it isn't so deep but what you can wade around. Get
sticks and poke under the stones and in every hole under the bank. In
places where it's over your heads, dive down and feel along the bottom
with your hands."

"But do be careful, boys," put in Mrs. Rushton. "I'm always nervous when
you get where the water is deep."

"Don't worry, Agnes," were her husband's soothing words. "Both of them
can swim like fish, and now they've got a chance to do it for something
else than fun.

"And mind, Teddy," he added, "it's up to you to get busy and make good
for your own sake, as well as Uncle Aaron's. I haven't yet
decided"--here Aaron grinned, unpleasantly--"just what I shall do to you
for what happened yesterday, but I don't mind telling you that if you
come home with those papers it's going to be a mighty sight easier for
you than if you don't. Now get along with you," addressing both boys,
"and make every minute tell."

The Rushton boys hurried about, put on their bathing suits under their
other clothes, and hastened from the house, eager for action. They were
glad to get out of the shadow of Uncle Aaron, and, besides, the task
they had before them promised to be as much of a lark as a duty.

"I'll pick up Jack and Jim as I go along, and you skip around and get
Bob," suggested Fred. "Probably we'll find some other fellows down by
the bridge, and they'll be glad enough to help us do the hunting."

Teddy assented, and soon had whistled Bob out of the house.

"Hello, Teddy," was Bob's greeting. "You're still alive, I see. What did
that old crab do to you last night?