THE COMPASS
“STRANGE that you fellows never forget to ask for your meals,” said Jack Frost tartly. “Your memory never fails you there.”
“Let us not waste time scolding them,” said Nimbus. “The important thing is to find where the Equator and the Evening Star have gone.”
“Very true,” said Jack Frost. “We’ll establish headquarters immediately, and send out scouts.”
Then he led the way to a little clump of palms which was at the foot of a hill just below them.
The Meteors, like a great flock of fireflies, followed along in their wake, and when they stopped they lined up for orders.
“Now,” said Nimbus, addressing them, “how many points of the compass are there?”
“It depends entirely on the compass,” said one of the Meteors.
“He’s right,” said Jack Frost. “A large compass would have more points than a small one. There’s more room on it.”
“I can box the compass,” chirruped another Meteor proudly.
“I can box ears,” snapped Nimbus peevishly.
Here Jack Frost broke in.
“Tell off a thousand Meteors,” he said, “to count all the points on the largest compass, and then order a scout to go in the direction pointed by each point. That ought to get them.”
“Good,” declared Nimbus. “Go to work, you fellows, and carry out orders. The first one who discovers them, notify Aurora Borealis, and she’ll flash the signal down to us.”
The Meteors, who were always active when there was work to be done, shot forth on their errands.
“How long do you suppose it will be before the Equator can catch the Evening Star?” asked Billy.
“It all depends on whether or not they are both going in the same direction,” replied Jack Frost.
Billy smiled. “Of course,” he said, “if they were going in opposite directions he never would catch her.”
“Wrong,” said Jack Frost. “Supposing I started for the South Pole and you started for the North Pole, and we both kept on going in the same direction after we got there, what would happen?”
Billy thought a minute. “Oh, I see!” he cried; “we’d meet on the opposite side of the earth.”
“We would,” said Jack Frost, “if we didn’t stop onthe way. The Equator has probably gone in the opposite direction, intending to meet the Evening Star on the other side of the world. That would surprise her.”
“In that case,” said Nimbus, “Jack Frost and I had better start off in opposite directions and see which gets to the other side of the world first. The one who does can put a stop to this chase.”
“But we don’t know just which part of the other side they’re going to meet on,” objected Jack Frost.
“We can take a chance,” said Nimbus. “That’s what the Meteors will have to do, and we can beat them, because we have no tails to drag after us.”
“What shall I do?” said Billy.
“You can stay here and get him if he happens to pass,” said Nimbus.
Billy was a little troubled about this, but he was not the boy to admit that he was frightened, and, though his mouth trembled a trifle and he winked a little more rapidly than usual, he kept a brave face as his two friends each called a cloud out of the sky and sailed away upon it.
He had stood there but a few minutes when he heard the tinkling of a bell a little distance away. At first it rang slowly and at long intervals, then faster and faster, till at length it sounded like the triangle the man played in one corner of the orchestra in the theater at home.
Thinking there could be no harm in finding out where the sound came from, as the Equator was as little likelyto alight in one place as another, he listened very carefully, then proceeded slowly toward the tinkling sound.
Soon he came out into the very clearing where the trolley car had reached the earth, and there stood the trolley car with the face of the Equine Ox protruding from the front door and wearing a very unhappy expression.
Confronting the Equine Ox was the conductor, who was waving his hands and shouting, while the motorman was stooping over, a little way off, gathering up a smooth round stone about the size of an egg.
Meanwhile the tinkle of the bell sounded continuously, and the Equine Ox wriggled and writhed as if very much displeased with his imprisonment.
The motorman being nearest to him, Billy addressed him:
“What are you going to do with that stone?” he inquired.
“Throw it at the Ox,” replied the motorman.
“Oh, don’t do that,” pleaded Billy. “You might hurt him. And he isn’t doing anything bad, I’m sure.”
“He isn’t, isn’t he?” shouted the motorman. “Ain’t he lashing his tail?”
“What of that?” asked Billy. “All animals lash their tails except bears and saddle horses and fox-hunters, which haven’t any tails to lash.”
“Confronting the Equine Ox was the conductor, waving his hand and shouting”
“But his tail is caught in the bell rope,” said the motorman, hurling the stone at the Equine Ox. The stone broke a window, and although it did not reach its target, itannoyed the creature so that he struggled more frantically than before, and the bell jingled furiously.
“Stop,” cried the conductor excitedly. “It’s getting too expensive for me.”
“Expensive!” said Billy in amazement.
“Yes, expensive. Every time he wiggles his tail that way he rings up a fare, and he’s rung up more than thirty-seven dollars’ worth already. I’ve counted ’em all.”
Billy understood why the motorman and the conductor were so worried. The tail of the Ox had become entangled in the rope that led to the fare register, and every tinkle of the bell meant a fare recorded.
At first he was shocked to think of this wasteful extravagance, but then he recollected that as the car was not on a regular run the fares couldn’t really be counted against the motorman and the conductor.
They were not at all certain of this when he explained it to them.
“We’re going back, ain’t we?” asked the conductor.
“Oh, yes,” said Billy, “I’m sure we are.”
“Well, when we run the car into the barn they’ll charge me with these fares,” said the conductor. “The car will have been away so long that they’ll be disgusted if it has not earned any money.”
“I tell you,” said Billy; “when Nimbus comes back I’ll get him to enchant the register so it will only charge up thefares you have really collected. That will make it all right.”
This appeased the motorman and the conductor, and in answer to Billy’s questions they explained how the Equine Ox got into the car.
When they were left alone with him he had behaved very badly, rolling on the ground and laughing very heartily, which proved, as they had been told by Nimbus, that he was furiously angry.
Then he began to sing, and at last he actually started to run away.
But they prevented this by tying the trolley rope tightly to his horn and securing him to the car, and then, fearing that the rope might break, they hit upon a stratagem.
They talked eagerly about the comforts and coolness of the inside of the car, until the curiosity of the Equine Ox outran his discretion and he insisted upon going in.
Knowing that he was governed by contraries, they tried to prevent his doing so. This, as they expected, made him all the more determined, and he forced his way past them into the car.
But once inside he found it impossible to get out, and then it was that he began the lashing of his tail, which had resulted in the ringing up of so many fares.
Billy agreed with the motorman and the conductor that the best place for the Equine Ox was in the trolley car,for if he tried too hard to escape they had only to shut the door to keep him there.
So Billy sat down and told the trolley men everything that had happened since he left them, and they became as excited as he was about the chances of the Evening Star’s escape from the Equator.
“I wish I had the Equator in reach of my crank handle,” said the motorman.
“I wish,” said Billy, “that the Evening Star would come past here right now. We’d get Nimbus to enchant the trolley car again, and away we’d go back home with her.”
“Sure,” said the conductor. “We could use her for a headlight on the way home.”
They were all busily discussing what could be done to secure the Evening Star against the Equator when they had her in Billy’s home when a light shone above the trees and soon a Meteor dropped among them.
“I just met the Equator going west-nor’west,” he said. “Where’s Nimbus?”
“In that case,” bellowed the Equine Ox, “I’ll go sou’-sou’east,” and he walked calmly away in that direction, tearing out the forward end of the trolley car as he went.
“Soon a Meteor dropped among them”