Page:Boys of Columbia High on the Ice.djvu/73

Rh "Say, I'll never look at this fine bit of stick again without a grin. Why, I'll be sure to hear the whang as it banged up against Brutus. I guess it pays to play baseball, and know how to swing a bat," he, continued.

Half a block further on he discovered that someone was moving on ahead of him.

"Granny guns! if I don't believe that's my Bill—Bill, yes plain Bill! What's he want over in this section, I'd like to know? This ain't the way upriver to his camp on Rattail. Was Lef right when he said Bill was a thief, and had come down to town to nab something? I don't know; perhaps he is, for nearly all hoboes are; but somehow I didn't kind of expect that of Bill."

He walked behind the other for a short distance. Several times he felt an inclination to hasten his steps and overtake the shuffling figure ahead. Then he changed his mind.

"It might bring about new trouble, and I reckon I've just been through the mill enough for one day. What Bill's doing here is none of my business. He's gone past our house now, and is still moving on up the road. Good-bye Bill, whoever you are, I'll remember sooner or later; I'm determined to."

So Lanky turned in at his own gate. He saw the shuffling figure stop at the sound of the closing gate, and look back. Governed by an impulse he