"Worse than that," said Bryce."You see, I'd made a bargain with him to buy the horse for a hundred and twenty--a swinging price, but I always liked the horse.And what does he do but go and stake him--fly at a hedge with stakes in it, atop of a bank with a ditch before it.The horse had been dead a pretty good while when he was found.So he hasn't been home since, has he?""Home? no," said Godfrey, "and he'd better keep away.Confound me for a fool! I might have known this would be the end of it.""Well, to tell you the truth," said Bryce, "after I'd bargained for the horse, it did come into my head that he might be riding and selling the horse without your knowledge, for I didn't believe it was his own.I knew Master Dunsey was up to his tricks sometimes.
But where can he be gone? He's never been seen at Batherley.He couldn't have been hurt, for he must have walked off.""Hurt?" said Godfrey, bitterly."He'll never be hurt--he's made to hurt other people.""And so you _did_ give him leave to sell the horse, eh?" said Bryce.
"Yes; I wanted to part with the horse--he was always a little too hard in the mouth for me," said Godfrey; his pride making him wince under the idea that Bryce guessed the sale to be a matter of necessity."I was going to see after him--I thought some mischief had happened.I'll go back now," he added, turning the horse's head, and wishing he could get rid of Bryce; for he felt that the long-dreaded crisis in his life was close upon him.
"You're coming on to Raveloe, aren't you?""Well, no, not now," said Bryce."I _was_ coming round there, for I had to go to Flitton, and I thought I might as well take you in my way, and just let you know all I knew myself about the horse.
I suppose Master Dunsey didn't like to show himself till the ill news had blown over a bit.He's perhaps gone to pay a visit at the Three Crowns, by Whitbridge--I know he's fond of the house.""Perhaps he is," said Godfrey, rather absently.Then rousing himself, he said, with an effort at carelessness, "We shall hear of him soon enough, I'll be bound.""Well, here's my turning," said Bryce, not surprised to perceive that Godfrey was rather "down"; "so I'll bid you good-day, and wish I may bring you better news another time."Godfrey rode along slowly, representing to himself the scene of confession to his father from which he felt that there was now no longer any escape.The revelation about the money must be made the very next morning; and if he withheld the rest, Dunstan would be sure to come back shortly, and, finding that he must bear the brunt of his father's anger, would tell the whole story out of spite, even though he had nothing to gain by it.There was one step, perhaps, by which he might still win Dunstan's silence and put off the evil day: he might tell his father that he had himself spent the money paid to him by Fowler; and as he had never been guilty of such an offence before, the affair would blow over after a little storming.
But Godfrey could not bend himself to this.He felt that in letting Dunstan have the money, he had already been guilty of a breach of trust hardly less culpable than that of spending the money directly for his own behoof; and yet there was a distinction between the two acts which made him feel that the one was so much more blackening than the other as to be intolerable to him.
