CHAPTER XXIXTHE ARK SAYS GOOD-BYE
Three days later, at exactly 1:44 in the afternoon, The Ark chugged her way decorously up to the platform at the station in Audelsville. In the front seat sat Tom and Willard, the latter rather gorgeously arrayed, as befitting one who is about to make his premier appearance at New Haven as a Yale freshman! In the tonneau reposed a suitcase adorned with a fresh, new label, bearing the inscription in a round, boyish hand, “Willard Garford Morris, New Haven, Ct.”
Before The Ark had quite ceased its motion a deep honking sounded in the direction of River Street and the boys turned to watch smilingly and proudly the gallant approach of a green and yellow motor truck on the seat of which sat Jimmy Brennan. The truck drew up behind The Ark and Jimmy shut off the engine and climbed down.
“Well, here’s your trunk, Will. If you’ll give me your ticket I’ll check it for you.”
“Thanks, Jimmy. Here you are.” And Willardrather importantly pulled a pocket-book from the recesses of his jacket and produced his ticket. “How does she run?”
“Run? She doesn’t run,” replied Jimmy proudly. “She glides! I’ll be back in a minute, fellows.”
“It was a fine thing, our finding Jimmy,” said Willard reflectively.
“I should say so! We’d never have got anywhere without him.”
“I feel sort of guilty, though, running away and leaving you two fellows to do all the work.”
“You needn’t. We’ll get on all right.”
“I know that. Only I feel as though I ought to be here helping. Anyway, I’m glad we’re all straight with Mr. Connors. He was pretty decent, wasn’t he, Tom?”
“Yes, he was. The thing I liked best about him was his not insisting when we refused to take his money that morning.”
“Well, he was certainly grateful! He made me feel—feel like crawling under the hotel verandah! And he was decent about your father, Tom.”
“Yes, but he should have been. I just told him we didn’t want his money and were glad we’d been able to help all we could. And then I said that if he really thought he owed us anything he could see that father got his reappointment as postmaster.”
“And what was it he said? ‘You tell John that he needn’t move out of there until he gets good and ready’; wasn’t that it?”
Tom nodded. “Something like that. What time is it getting to be?”
“There’s four minutes yet. I say, Tom, you’ll write real often, won’t you? And let me know everything that’s going on. I wish we had more money on hand. That’s sort of worrying me.”
Tom smiled. “Well, we haven’t much of a balance in the bank, and that’s a fact. After we pay that insurance premium to-morrow, we’ll have about twenty dollars to our name. But you needn’t worry about that. We’ll make more fast enough. And about everything’s paid for up to date,—except that you still have twenty-five dollars coming to you.”
“There’s no hurry about that,” returned Willard. “And let me know how you get along with the football team, Tom. Wasn’t it fine, their electing you captain?”
“Flattering,” laughed Tom, “but awkward. I told the silly chumps I wouldn’t have time for it but they wouldn’t listen to me. Have you heard how George is getting on?”
“Mother said he was doing finely. But it will be three or four weeks before he can be out again. Is that the whistle?”
“Yes, you’d better get your bag out.”
But Jimmy returned just then and performed that service and the two boys piled out of The Ark as the 1:57 came whirring into the station. They conducted Willard across the platform and put him on the train.
“Good-bye, Tom! Be good to The Ark! Good-bye, Jimmy! Look after yourself!”
“Good-bye, Will! Don’t forget to write to a fellow!”
“I won’t. See that you do. And tell me all the news. Make him write to me, Jimmy, will you?”
“If he doesn’t I’ll cut his tires,” responded Jimmy.
The train started slowly out. Tom, with a last wave of his hand, darted across the platform and pounced on the horn.
“Honk! Honk!” said The Ark. “Honk! Honk! Honk!”
THE END
Transcriber’s Notes:Except for the frontispiece, illustrations have been moved to follow the text that they illustrate, so the page number of the illustration may not match the page number in the List of Illustrations.Printer’s, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.
Transcriber’s Notes:
Except for the frontispiece, illustrations have been moved to follow the text that they illustrate, so the page number of the illustration may not match the page number in the List of Illustrations.
Printer’s, punctuation and spelling inaccuracies were silently corrected.
Archaic and variable spelling has been preserved.
Variations in hyphenation and compound words have been preserved.