The snowball sailed through the air and struck the stranger’s battered hat, knocking it off into the snow. And, of course, Jolly Robin couldn’t help laughing. He was more surprised than ever, too, because the moon-faced man did not move even then. Anyone else would have wheeled about and chased Johnnie Green. But this odd gentleman didn’t seem to know that his hat had been knocked off.
“That’s queer!” said Jolly Robin to himself. “He must be asleep. But I should think he would wake up.”
While Jolly was wondering, Johnnie Green threw another snowball. And when it struck the stranger a very peculiar thing happened.
And Jolly Robin did not laugh. He was too frightened to do anything but gasp.
XI
WHAT A SNOWBALL DID
Jolly Robin was too frightened to laugh when he saw Johnnie Green’s second snowball strike the moon-faced stranger in the orchard. You see, the snowball hit one of the stranger’s arms. And to Jolly’s amazement, the arm at once dropped off and dashed upon the ground, breaking into a dozen pieces.
That alone was enough to startle Jolly Robin. But the moon-faced man paid not the slightest attention to the accident. There was something ghostly in the way he stood there, all in white, never moving, never once saying a word. 54