by Frank Cobb
CHAPTER VIII
The day passed rapidly. The boys were the first in the dining-car when ameal was announced, and be it said they were almost the last to leave.They had been provided with plenty of money for "eats," as the twoMajor-fathers wisely remembered that a boy is never so hungry as whentravelling. Also their section was the first one made up. They weretired, and sleepy.
They tossed up to see which should take the upper berth, both boyswanting it, and Frank won.
They spread their suitcases out on Bill's bed to open them, then Frankdecided to take his up with him and climbed up into his lofty berthwhile Bill boosted and lifted the suitcase after him. Bill had packedhis own suitcase for the first time, and his mother had smiled as shesaw him carefully plant his pajamas on the very bottom. She saidnothing, however, as she knew that another time he would lay them on thetop where he could get them without any trouble. Frank had done the samething, so for a little there was silence as the boys spread everythingon the beds in a wild effort to locate the missing garments. At lastthey were found, and the suitcases repacked, hair brushes and toothpaste being salvaged as they went.
As Bill slipped into his pajama coat something pricked him. The pocketwas pinned together with a large, rusty pin. He drew it out and from thepocket took a folded envelope.
"What in time is this?" he murmured to himself, then smiled as hereflected that it must be a little love letter from his mother. Hewinked mischievously at her picture on his wrist as he tore open theenvelope. But there was no letter from mother in the envelope. Insteadit was stuffed with perfectly new, crisp five-dollar bills. There weretwenty of them. Twenty! Bill counted them twice. Then still disbelievinghis eyes, he laid the beautiful green engravings all over his sheet andcounted them one by one with his forefinger. Twenty! He noticed a smallpiece of paper in the envelope and examined it. It read briefly:
"BILL:
"i looked all over Lawton for sumething nise for you to take to school. So please spend this on something you like. I will tell your mother what I done so she wont kick. Anyhow I aint afraid of her kicking ever since the day i broke her big glass dish that you said was cut. It cut me all right, but she never said a word, and I bet she wont now when i explane. So remember when this you see, remember Lee. That is some poetry partly mine and partly out of a book. If I had kept at school the way I should of, I could have made the whole piece up myself. Rite soon to yours as ever,
"LEE."
Bill gasped. Then he gathered the precious money tight in his hand andstanding on the edge of his berth, hoisted himself up to Frank's level.
"Glue your eye to this!" he whispered loudly over the racket of thetrain. "Gee, have you got the same?"
At the sound of Bill's voice, Frank, who was staring at a handful ofbills, started violently, then forced a rather shaky smile.
"Found this in my pajama coat," he said; then as Bill waved his fist,"What! Have you the same thing?"
"Surest thing you know!" said Bill. "Never had so much money in my life.The darned old peach!"
"I haven't counted it," said Frank. "It sort of scared me. Who do youthink gave it to us?"
"Didn't you read your letter?" asked Bill, wiggling the rest of the wayup and taking a paper like his own from Frank's envelope. He handed itover and Frank unfolded and read it. Reluctantly, but seeing no way outof it, he handed it over to Bill.
"Frank," said the letter, "Lawton is a dead one. Nuthing in it for boys except rattles and guns and pink silk shirts and stick pins. But your dad wouldnt let you have the pins and your mothers wouldn't see you found dead in them shirts, and the pins was sort of advansed, so I want you to spend this money on something you like when you get to whatever it is.
"Just a present from your friend "LEE."
"P. S. Say, Frank, lets take a fresh start me and you. I wouldnt believe you would lie or steal even if some do do such. So you must take it from me that a good indian is a good indian just as a good white man is good.
"So that all we want to bother about that.
"Your true friend "LEE."
"Well, this beats all!" said Bill, handing back the letter. "Isn't Leethe _peach_ though? I wish I was sure Mom would let me keep this. Isn'tit great--all new fives! I suppose he thought it would be handy that wayfor us to spend."
"What does he mean about not believing that I lie or steal?" said Frank,scowling.
"Why, just what he says, you nut!" exclaimed Bill. "Can't you read? Hemeans he knows _you_ wouldn't do anything wrong, and so you must believein _him_. I bet he has overheard some of the things you have said abouthim. Anyhow, it is just as he says. You must keep his present, and makea new start. He wants to be good friends with you and wants you to likehim. And I should say he deserves it."
Frank said very little about the present but Bill didn't notice. He wastoo busy voicing his own surprise and gratitude. Before he finally sliddown into his own berth he had spent the crisp new fives twenty timesover. He thought he was too excited to sleep, but after he had pinnedthe present back in his coat pocket, and had carefully laid himself downon that side, and tied all the curtains shut, and balanced his suitcaseon end at the front of the berth so a possible robber would tip it overon him, he was asleep in two seconds. It would have worked all right atthat, only by-and-by in the middle of a dream where Bill was batter in abaseball nine that used ice-cream cones instead of balls, the train wentaround a curve and over came the suitcase. Bill was awake in a second,and for a moment had a hand-to-hand fight with the curtains before herealized what had happened. With a laugh he felt for his preciouspocket, and slept again.
But in the upper berth Frank Anderson had tossed Lee's friendly letterand the packet of bills down to the end of the berth as though they wereworthless. He was only a boy and should have slept but all night long helay and stared at the little electric bulb burning dimly over his head.He lay and thought; and his thoughts burned like fire.
It was very late the following night when they reached theirdestination. Bill had come to the conclusion that Frank was not a veryjolly traveling companion. He was moody and inclined to be reallygrouchy. And touchy.... _Whew!_ It was all Bill could do to say theright thing. Finally he remembered that some people are always car-sickwhen they travel, and on being asked, Frank admitted that he didn't feelso very good. So Bill let him alone and things went better. Bill made agood many friends that day and came within an ace of being kissed by apale little lady who found a chance to take a much needed nap becauseBill took charge of her two-year-old terror of a baby boy while sheslept. There was an old gentleman too, who asked him a million or morequestions, and enjoyed himself very much. He asked the boys to takeluncheon with him, and proved that he had not forgotten his boyhood byordering the _dandiest_ dinner--even a lot of things that were not onthe bill. He was a director of the road, or vice-president, orsomething, the porter told Bill in a whisper, but Bill didn't pay muchattention. What the old gentleman _didn't_ tell was that he was atrustee of the very school the boys were going to attend. Some day theywere going to meet him again, but that is another story.
Anyhow, it was very late when they arrived and they were piloted totheir room by a pale young instructor who met them at the station in anancient and wheezy Ford belonging to the school. They were the lastboys to arrive, he told them, and school was to begin at eight o'clockin the morning. He warned them to be perfectly quiet as the boys wereall asleep and it was against rules to speak or have the lights on afternine. But they were to be allowed a light to undress by, and he wouldcome in in fifteen minutes and put it out.
They undressed in about a tenth of the time it usually took for thatceremony, and even Bill, who forgot to brush his teeth and had to get upagain to do it, was deep under the covers when Mr. Nealum, thein
structor, came silently in, said goodnight without a smile, turnedoff the light, found the door by the aid of a big flashlight he carriedand silently disappeared.
"Undertaker!" whispered Frank.
"Shut up!" said Bill. He listened intently, then said under his breath,"Be careful! I thought I heard him breathe!"
"He is gone," answered Frank. "I heard him walk away."
"Not much you did!" said Bill. "He pussyfooted it. Must have had rubbersoles on his shoes."
"I heard him anyhow," insisted Frank. The boys lay still, thinking overtheir new situation. It was very exciting. They were not lonely. Theirnarrow beds, but little wider than the quartermaster cots at Sill, wereside by side, nearly touching. Presently Bill spoke.
"What's the matter with you, Frank?"
"Nothing! What ails _you_?" retorted Frank.
"Nothing, but you _breathe_ so hard--sort of choky and gaspy."
"That's you doing _that_," said Frank. "I can't sleep with you snortingso."
"I tell you it's you!" said Bill. "I listened to myself breathe, and youcouldn't hear me. I was breathing just like this." He gave a sample, andyou could not hear him. Then as both boys listened, things began tohappen.
Frank made a light leap from his bed and landed on top of the stunned,scared and astonished Bill.
"Sssssh!" hissed Frank. "The money!... Robbers!... Under the bed!"
Frozen with horror, the boys listened intently. The breathing _was_under Bill's bed. It seemed as though they lay listening for a weekbefore Bill made a violent motion to free himself from Frank's grasp.
"Where you going?" hissed that youth.
"To light the light and give the alarm. If he tries to get out, we willhold him."
"Stay here!" commanded Frank.
For answer Bill wrenched himself free and bounded out on the floor. Withanother bound he reached the light and turned the button. No lightresponded. He stood beside the wall, uncertain what move to make next.The sensible thing seemed to be to shout an alarm or else go out andfind Mr. Nealum. In either case what would the robber do to Frank, whowas roosting right above him? The breathing under the bed continued, nowfast, now slow, up and down. Bill had heard something like thatsomewhere.
As his fright subsided, he recognized the sounds as very familiar. Billhad not lived in the apartments at Sill for nothing. Too, too often hadhe listened to the sounds that trickled clearly through theplaster-board partitions. Those partitions were like sounding boards.From one apartment to the next, they transferred the arguments,discussions and all goings-on on the other side. Bill laughedsoundlessly in the dark. The lights had been turned off at some centralswitch, and the darkness was intense. He was lost in the strange room.He took a step sidewise along the wall and stubbed his toe against asuitcase. Bending, he found that it was his own. The problem was solved.Rummaging hastily, he found his flashlight.
"Frank!" he called in a low whisper.
"W-w-what?" quavered from the dark.
Following the direction of the low sound, Bill crossed the room untilhis outstretched hand collided with Frank's eye. This mostly happens,you know. Frank stifled a howl as Bill hissed, "Listen! We have him now!He's asleep--snoring. Let's take a look at him and then beat it for Mr.Nealum. He must be somewhere about."
"Don't you do it!" whispered Frank, clutching Bill. "Find Mr. Nealumfirst. You go to flashing that light in his eyes and you will wake himup. He's apt to kill us before you could get to the door."
"Think what a lark it will be if we take him prisoner all by ourselves!We can tie him up with these sheets in no time. Now I tell you how wewill work it. As soon as we see just how he is lying, I will shove thebed off him, and you lam him good and plenty with that dictionary. Soonas you do that I will throw all the blankets and bedclothes and themattress on him and then we will sit on him and yell. Somebody ought tocome."
Frank still objected, sure from the size of the sounds that were noweasily recognizable as snores, that the robber was really in a deepsleep.
"If he is anything like Lee," he said, "he will throw us off in asecond."
"But you are going to lam him one!" whispered Bill patiently. "You musthit hard enough to knock him out--stun him."
"Well, have it your own way!" conceded Frank. He commenced to realizewhat a wonderful introduction this would be to the boys of the school ifit went through as smoothly as Bill seemed to think it would.
"Here, take the flashlight, but don't turn it on," whispered Bill. "Iwant to get the bedclothes ready."
Silently and quickly he loosened the tucked-in sheets and blankets. Herolled up the sleeves of his pajama coat
"Now," he said, "let's take a look before we roll the bed away."
Clutching the dictionary in both hands, Frank slid to the floor where hecrouched, shivering from excitement. Bill, on his knees, folded ahandkerchief over the flashlight to dim it, then pressed the button.Slowly he turned it under the bed. The dim light rested on a tumbledshock of hair and a flushed face, pillowed uncomfortably on a crampedand doubled arm.
Snores rattled furiously from the open mouth. Sleeping the sleep of theweary, the thief lay completely at their mercy.
"Gosh!" said Bill as he looked.
"Gee-roosalem!" murmured Frank.
With a bang the big dictionary slipped from his hands and landed on thefloor.
The intruder with a violent start opened his eyes and looked at them.
