“‘Like father, like son,’” quoted Joe. “They’re two of a kind, that pair. But I guess they didn’t get much satisfaction out of your father, Bob.”
“I should say not!” laughed Bob. “If they had said much more, I think we’d have treated ourselves to the pleasure of throwing them into the street.”
Bob then told them about his father’s projected trip to Mountain Pass, and his disappointment at not being allowed to accompany his parents.
“That’s pretty tough,” said Jimmy, sympathetically. “I know how you must feel. It would be a swell trip, and they say the meals at the Mountain Rest Hotel up at Mountain Pass are about the best ever.”
“There you go!” exclaimed Bob, laughing. “It’s a lucky thing for the hotel that you’re not going. They’d lose money on you, sure as shooting.”
“Well, I’d try to get my money’s worth,” said Jimmy, complacently.
“You’d get it, too, no fear of that,” said Joe, confidently.
When this conversation took place, the boys never dreamed that they might all be going to Mountain Pass together in the near future. But as events shaped themselves in the next few days, this began to assume an aspect of probability.
The epidemic of typhoid increased, and there was something nearly approaching a panic in Clintonia. Families began leaving the town every day, and Dr. Atwood, as head of the town Board of Health, finally issued orders that the schools must close until the epidemic had been gotten under control.
When Bob heard this news, he could not, in spite of the seriousness of the situation, suppress a feeling of exultation. With school closed, the main objection to his accompanying his parents to Mountain Pass was removed, and he had little doubt now that he could persuade them to take him.