Page:Rover Boys Down East.djvu/99

Rh of the vicinity, who had given him the cigar box the evening before.

Ricks struck a match and commenced to puff away with satisfaction. By this time the wagon was loaded and Tom directed Jack Ness to drive off to the bridge and wait for him.

"Well, good-bye, Mr. Ricks," said the fun-loving youth, as he stepped up to the ticket window. "Hope you don't hold any hard feelings."

"You quit your foolin'!" growled the station master.

"I see you're smoking another cigar."

"What if I am? Ain't I got a right to smoke if I want to?"

"Not if you see things when you do it."

"See things? Wot do you mean, Tom Rover?"

"They tell me that you imagined you saw snakes the other day when you were smoking."

"You go on about your business! You played me a trick, that's what you did!"

"It's queer how cigars affect some people. They get nervous and think the end of the cigar is crawling," went on Tom, earnestly. "Now, if I was affected that way I wouldn't smoke."

"Say, Tom Rover, I want you to understand"

What the station agent wanted Tom to know was never divulged, for at that instant the cigar