CHAPTER XXX

GONE

In the middle of the room was a table Jimmy always ate his meals at, and on that table was a big square piece of paper and there was a big envelope on the floor.  But there wasn’t any sign of Jimmy.  Oh, boy, didn’t I feel good on account of that.  Westy read the paper out loud and it was something about a convention of the Grand Army, or something like that.  It said how all the members of some post or other were asked to go to Saratoga on account of that big convention and it was addressed to “Comrade James Van Dorian.”  Gee, I felt awful sorry for him, sort of, because I knew how it was with him.

“He just couldn’t help it,” Westy said, “he got ready in a hurry and went.  I guess he took all the money he had saved up-poor old Jimmy.”

“He’ll lose his job, that’s sure,” I said.

Even while we were standing there I could kind of see him getting dressed up in a hurry in that old blue coat he had, with the buttons all falling off it, and starting off with his crutch.  Maybe he just got his pension money, hey?

All the while the whistle on the tug was blowing and I was afraid people would come around and maybe they’d all be on the side of the tugboat man and be mad at Uncle Jimmy.

Jiminy, I wasn’t mad at him, anyway.  And I could hear that old man shouting about all the things he was going to do and about the bridgeman deserting and leaving him in the mud.

“Hurry up,” Westy said, “let’s find the key-bar and we’ll open it for him, we can do it all right.”

So we looked all around in a hurry, but we couldn’t find it anywhere.  The key-bar is what you open the bridge with, you know.  It’s kind of like a crow-bar and you stick it in a certain place and walk around pushing it.  It isn’t so hard when you get started on account of the bridge being balanced right and it’s geared up, too.  But what’s the use if you can’t find the key-bar?

“It must be somewheres around,” Westy said, all excited.

Oh, didn’t we turn things inside out!  But it wasn’t any use—­we couldn’t find it.

“Don’t let’s bother,” I said, “I’ve got an idea, come ahead—­quick!” I didn’t even stop to tell him what I was thinking about, but I hustled back into the boat, with Pee-wee after us, wanting to know what we found inside.

“A couple of mysteries,” I panted out.

“How many?” he wanted to know.

“And a couple of ghosts thrown in,” I said, “Hurry up.”

On the way across I told the fellows to please let me talk to the old man, because I had something particular to say to him.  I was panting and rowing so hard, that I couldn’t tell the fellows then.  Anyway, I guess Pee-wee had that house haunted and filled with German spies and Uncle Jimmy murdered and goodness knows what all.

We pulled up right alongside the tug-boat and I called out to the old man that I wanted to tell him something and to please let me come up.  I was all trembling, but anyway, I said it right out and I didn’t wait for him to say yes, because he was too busy saying other things to say it.