Part 16 (1/2)

CHAPTER XV

THE SNOWSLIDE

”Well,” said Herb, philosophically, ”'it is an ill wind that blows n.o.body any good.'”

Bob, who had been shaking a tree for nuts and had shaken down more snow than anything else, looked at Herb inquiringly.

”Now what's the poor nut raving about?” he asked slangily of Jimmy and Joe, who were also engaged in nut gathering.

”I was just thinking,” said Herb, with an attempt at dignity, ”how sorry I am for all those poor sick people in Clintonia.”

”Oh, yes, you were,” scoffed Jimmy, who was eating more nuts than he saved. ”You were thinking how lucky we are to be here picking nuts in the woods instead of slaving away in Clintonia High.”

”Gee, that fellow must be a mind reader!” exclaimed Herb, grinning, and Bob, coming near, made a pa.s.s at him.

”Say, get busy, old bluffer,” he said. ”You're getting slower than Doughnuts here. You haven't got half the nuts that I have.”

”But I'm having twice as much fun,” countered Herb, unmoved ”A fellow can't work all the time.”

”I wish I knew what was worrying Mr. Salper,” said Joe, suddenly. ”I wonder if that Wall Street bunch, is really out after his money.”

”Gee, he sure does know how to change the subject,” murmured Herb, and Bob threw a nut at him, which he successfully ducked.

”He seemed rather cut up about it, anyway,” said Bob, in answer to Joe.

”I wouldn't trust those Wall Street sharpers out of my sight myself,”

added Jimmy solemnly.

”Gee, listen to the financier,” gibed Herb. ”He's lost so many millions in Wall Street himself.”

”Not yet,” said Jimmy, plaintively. ”But wait, my boy, my life is all before me.”

”Say,” cried Joe, ”if you two fellows don't look out I'll put you in my pocket with the other nuts.”

”Mr. Salper seems kind of a nut himself,” said Joe, continuing with his own reflections. ”He seems to have a grouch on everything and everybody.”

”No wonder, with all the worries he's got,” said Jimmy, adding dolefully: ”You see the penalties of extreme wealth.”

”One thing you'll never have to worry about,” said Herb, and Jimmy grinned good-naturedly.

”I'd rather have my sweet disposition,” he sighed, ”than all of Salper's wealth.”

”I don't see why you think he's so wealthy,” Bob objected. ”Everybody who trades in Wall Street isn't a millionaire, you know.”

”Say, wait a minute!” cried Bob suddenly, with an imperative wave of his hand. ”Did you hear anything?”

They listened for a moment in breathless silence and it came again, the call that Bob's sharp ears had first detected. In the distance it was, surely, but a distinct cry for help, nevertheless.

”Come on, fellows! We're needed!” cried Bob, and, dropping his bag of nuts in the snow, he started off at a swift pace in the direction of the sound.

The rest of the radio boys needed no second invitation. They started after Bob, pus.h.i.+ng swiftly through the deep snow.