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All the people were laughing and calling and waving to Luke to show him how glad they were that he was free. The noise was deafening. Then it stopped. All was quiet again; and the people stood up respectfully while the judge left the Court. For the trial of Luke the Hermit, that famous trial which to this day they are still talking of in Puddleby, was over.
You could have heard a pin drop while the whole court-room, the whole of Puddleby in fact, waited with craning necks and straining ears to hear the weighty words. "Your Honor," said the little man, "the jury returns a verdict of NOT GUILTY." "What's that mean?" I asked, turning to the Doctor.
"Do you really think," I asked as we sat down on the sands, "that he will never go back to Puddleby again?" "I don't know," said she. "At one time I felt sure that the thought of the pets he had left behind at the house would take him home soon. But since Miranda brought him word last August that everything was all right there, that hope's gone.
What has happened? Where IS the Hermit?" "He's in Puddleby Jail," said Jip. "He's in prison." "In prison!" "Yes." "What for? What's he done?" Jip went over to the door and smelt at the bottom of it to see if any one were listening outside. Then he came back to the Doctor on tiptoe and whispered,
Another friend I had was Matthew Mugg, the cat's-meat-man. He was a funny old person with a bad squint. He looked rather awful but he was really quite nice to talk to. He knew everybody in Puddleby; and he knew all the dogs and all the cats. In those times being a cat's-meat-man was a regular business.
Then Chee-Chee got up; and all the others whispered, "Sh! Look! Chee-Chee, the great Traveler, is about to speak!" And Chee-Chee said to the other monkeys, "My friends, I am afraid it is useless to ask the Doctor to stay. He owes money in Puddleby; and he says he must go back and pay it." And the monkeys asked him, "What is MONEY?"
"My Goodness," he sighed, turning away sadly. "That makes me feel more like going with you than ever But my rheumatism is that bad I can't hardly " I didn't hear any more for Matthew had moved off, still mumbling, into the crowd that stood about the wharf. The clock in Puddleby Church struck noon and I turned back, feeling very busy and important, to the task of loading.
And when the Doctor stood upon the boat, he looked over the side across the water. And then he remembered that they had no one with them to guide them back to Puddleby. The wide, wide sea looked terribly big and lonesome in the moonlight; and he began to wonder if they would lose their way when they passed out of sight of land.
But I'd sooner swim back to Puddleby than have to listen to that fellow's talk all the way to Brazil." Indeed he was a terrible person, this Ben Butcher. You'd think that any one after being told he wasn't wanted would have had the decency to keep quiet. But not Ben Butcher. He kept going round the deck pointing out all the things we had wrong.
So I went and asked my aunt how she felt you remember her? the long, piebald rat, rather skinny, who came to see you in Puddleby last Spring with jaundice? Well and she said HER tail was tingling like everything! Then we knew, for sure, that this boat was going to sink in less than two days; and we all made up our minds to leave it as soon as we got near enough to any land.
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