Part 23 (1/2)

”Binney,” says Mark, ”you're a n-n.o.ble young man right out of a book.

Honest you are. You're a hero,” says he.

”I hain't,” says I.

”L-look here, you saphead,” says he, ”have some sense. I'm goin' to git Rock back into Jethro's hands,” says he, ”but not to help Jethro. We _got_ to have him back here. How we g-g-goin' to find out about him if he's run away? Tell me that. There's somethin' mighty mysterious and important about him. Jethro and the Man With the Black Gloves hain't d-doin' all they're up to just for fun, be they? Not by a jugful. Rock had ought to have known b-better than to go sneakin' off, but I s'pose he got l-lonesome. Poor kid! But lonesome or not, he's got to come b-back.”

I felt pretty silly and didn't think of anything to say.

”Come on,” says Mark.

”Where?” says I.

”To l-look for Rock,” says he.

”Where'll we look?”

”Well,” says he, ”if you was Rock and was r-r-runnin' away, where'd you go?”

”South Sea Islands,” says I.

He just grunted scornful-like. ”Which way would you g-g-go first?”

”Right to the depot,” says I, ”and take a train.”

”How'd you pay for your t-ticket? Rock didn't have a cent.”

That was a facer. ”Then I'd steal a ride on a freight,” says I.

”No you wouldn't,” says he. ”You wouldn't go toward t-town at all.

Jethro was watchin' you close. You had to sneak away in a s-second when he wasn't lookin'. How'd you m-manage it?”

”Why,” says I, ”I'd git near the gate gradual, and then I'd run like the d.i.c.kens.”

”You wouldn't, n-n-neither-especial if you wanted to leave a l-letter.

I'll tell you what Rock did. He got hold of p-p-paper and pencil and pocketed 'em. Then he went out in the yard and walked around. You see how he did the other day when we came here first. He hain't any n-ninny.

Well, he'd walk around the yard and after a while he'd c-c-come into this arbor. For t-two reasons. To leave the letter he was goin' to write, and to get time to hustle off to quite a d-distance before Jethro suspected he was escapin'.”

”How's that?” says I.

”Why,” says he, ”Jethro'd s-see Rock come in here, and he'd think he knew where he was. He wouldn't come p-pokin' in to see. So Rock would write his l-letter in a hurry, and scrooch out through the hedge and run. All the t-time Jethro'd be thinkin' he was right in here. Maybe it would b-be an hour before he'd begin to wonder what Rock was up to so l-long and come in to see. In an hour Rock could move off quite a ways.”

”Sure,” says I, ”but where'd he move to?”

”He'd git away from the road,” says Mark. ”He wouldn't take the road t-toward Wicksville, and he wouldn't go the other way, and he wouldn't cross the road and go s-south, because somebody might see him when he crossed. There hain't but one other way for him to go, and that's n-north toward the r-river and the woods. That's where he went.”

”Sounds likely,” I says.

”It's sure,” says he. ”He got through the hedge and took a l-look and seen those woods right there. Then he made for 'em lickety-split.”