I got a glimpse of trouble ahead, right there; for that chump of a
Danvers never made a move when I gives him the wink. All he could get
into that peanut head of his at one time was to collect those leather
bags and get ready to trot around wherever that long-legged old lunatic
led the way.
"They've changed the time on that train of yours, Sir Pete," says I.
"She don't come along until ten-twenty-six now, spring schedule," and I
winks an eye loose at Danvers.
"'Pon my word!" says Sir Peter, "you here yet? Danvers, show this person
to the gates."
"Yes, sir," says Danvers. He comes up to me an' whispers, kind of ugly:
"I sye now, you'll 'ave to stop chaffin' Sir Peter. I won't 'ave it!"
"Help!" says I. "There's a rat after me."
"Hi'll bash yer bloomin' nose in!" says he, gettin' pink behind the
ears.
"Hi'll write to the bloomin' pypers habout it if you do," says I.
I was wishin' that would fetch him, and it did. He comes at me wide
open, with a guard like a soft-shell crab. I slips down the state-room
passage, out of sight of Sir Peter, catches Danvers by the scruff,
chucks him into a berth, and ties him up with the sheets, as careful as
if he was to go by express.
"Now make all the holler you want," says I. "It won't disturb us none,"
and I shut the door.
But Sir Peter was a different proposition. I didn't want to rough-house
him. He was too ancient; and anyway, I kind of liked the old chap's
looks. He'd forgot all about Danvers, and was makin' figures on an
envelope when I got back. I let him figure away, until all of a sudden
he puts up his pencil and lugs out that bucket again.
"It's quit raining," says I.
"What do you know about it?" says he. "It's pouring decimals, just
pouring 'em. But I've got to get my report in." With that he claps on
the bucket, grabs a bag and starts for the car door.
It was up to me to make a quick play; for he was just ripe to go buttin'
around those tracks and run afoul of a switch-engine. And I hated to
collar him. Just then I spots the tennis-ball.
"Whoop-ee!" says I, grabbin' it up and slammin' it at his head. I made a
bull's-eye on the pail, too. "That's a cigar you owe me," says I, "and I
gets two more cracks for my nickel." He tried to dodge; but I slammed it
at him a couple more times. "Your turn now," says I. "Gimme the bucket."
Sounds foolish, don't it? I'll bet it looked a heap foolisher than it
sounds; but I'd just thought of something a feller told me once. He was
a young doctor in the bat ward at Bellevue. "They're a good deal like
kids," says he, "and if you remember that, you can handle 'em easy."
And say, Sir Peter seemed to look tickled and interested. The first
thing I knew he'd chucked the bucket on my head and was doin' a
war-dance, lambastin' that tennis-ball at me to beat the cars. It was
working, all right.
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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