CHAPTER XIV—SOMETHING MISSING
Now I’m going to tell you all about what happened that night. Before dark Westy rode up to my house on his bicycle, because I had told him that I’d help him clean it up. We weren’t thinking about the car, because we had decided that we’d go and see Mr. Downing the next morning; that would be Sunday.
We knew Mr. Downing took a lot of interest in the scouts, and we weren’t worrying, because we thought he would fix things for us. The way we talked to Mr. Slausen is the only way you can talk to a man like that, because he’s an old grouch. Everybody knows him.
Now out by the road in front of my house is a carriage step, and Westy and I sat on that while we cleaned up his bike and oiled it and greased it. We kept working there till it was nearly dark. He has a dandy big flashlight and we used that to light up places that we couldn’t see very well.
Pretty soon the bike was all clean and the dirt was all on us. So we went in to wash up. I was the first to get through, so I went out on the porch and lay down on the swing seat.
Now there’s a wide lawn between our house and the road. I ought to know because I mow it every week. That’s where my sister and Harry Donnelle play tennis. He’s a big fellow.
It was pretty nearly dark and I was waiting for Westy to come out. He was going to stay to supper at my house. My mother likes him a lot. But that night we didn’t feel much like supper. While I was lying there an automobile passed along the road and stopped right in front of the house and somebody got out. I thought whoever it was was coming up to the house when I saw that person get in the car and ride away again.
Just then Westy came out and I said, “Somebody got out of a car down at the road.”
He looked kind of funny for a second, then he said, “Let’s go down.”
His bicycle was leaning against the carriage step and a few tools and things were on the step.
I said, kind of anxious, “Are they all there?”
“I don’t see my flashlight,” he said.
I said, “Let’s look around in the grass.”
But we couldn’t find it anywhere.
Gee, I didn’t think anybody in an automobile would be so mean as to stop and pick up a thing like that. Maybe it was worth two or three dollars.
I said, “We shouldn’t have left the things out here, but, jiminies, I never thought anybody would be so mean as to stop and take a thing like that. If he had taken the bicycle it wouldn’t have seemed so bad.”
“Let’s run,” Westy said.
“I’m with you,” I told him.
He said, “It’s got my initials on, that’s one thing.”
We gathered up the stuff in a hurry and wheeled the bicycle in to the porch and then started along the road, going scout pace. We couldn’t use the bicycle because the tires were flat. There was one machine quite a way ahead of us. It turned into Main Street and we caught up with it a little because it had to go slow there.
About two blocks down Main Street it turned into Willow Place. If you look at the map I made you’ll see where that is. It went faster now and we were falling behind all the time.
Pretty soon Westy panted, “I know that car.”
“Whose is it?” I asked him.
“Wait a minute; you’ll see,” he said.
Just then it turned in and crossed the sidewalk and disappeared. Westy and I just stopped and stood there panting and staring at each other.
“What—do—you—know—about—that?” I just blurted out.
“Slausen’s,” he said, all out of breath.
“Sure,” I said; “that’s Charlie Slausen.”