“I do,” says Mark, short as could be, because he don’t like to have folks talking about his weight. Then he winked at Jethro and got him off to one side.
“Say,” he says, “that kid’s goin’ to slip away s-s-sure,” says he, “if he hain’t watched. You can’t do it right, but us fellers can. What you say to givin’ us a job guardin’ him? We’ll see he’s kept here till it’s time for him to go somewheres else.”
Jethro scratched his chin and thought it over.
“How much?” says he.
“Fifty c-cents a day,” says Mark. “One of us’ll be here all the t-time.”
“Good,” says Jethro. “I’ll jest take you up on that. Keep your eye on him clost. Don’t let him git out of this yard.”
“Don’t worry,” says Mark. “Now how about s-s-somethin’ to eat?”
Jethro went in and brought us out some pie and a fried-cake apiece—the bakery kind. They weren’t very good, but we managed to get away with them, and then Jethro went about his business, having been fooled good by Mark, and depending on him to keep his eye on Rock.
When he was gone Mark says to Rock, “Now you s-s-see why we wanted to f-fetch you back? We got the job w-watchin’ you, and we can be with you all we want, and we can s-s-snoop around this place as much as we want to. And I can tell you I’ve got a heap of snoopin’ to do. And we can see to it that nothin’ happens to you, for one of us will be here all the time.”
“Mark Tidd,” says Rock, “you’re all right. You’ve got more brains in your little finger than I have in my head.”