“Sure,” says Jerry, “ay tank so, too.”
“Good-by,” says Mark, “and m-much obliged.”
“Good-by,” says Ole and Jerry, and then we were off alone. Once I looked back. They were still standing where we left them, laughing as hard as they could laugh. There isn’t a bit of doubt they thought Mark Tidd was the funniest person they ever saw.
We walked as fast as we could, and got to Scottville in plenty of time. Mark bought the tickets, because he had the money. We had elected him treasurer, so he had all there was. Then we sat down on the depot platform to wait for the train. It was getting dusk, which turned out to be a pretty lucky thing for us. It was lucky, too, that we were sitting near a corner of the depot. In spite of Mr. Hogtoter we were having good luck for a while, anyhow.
Just as the train whistled down the track somebody came through the depot door. It was Jiggins. Collins was right at his heels. They turned to look down the track in the direction away from us, and right there I gave Mark Tidd the hardest shove he ever got. It toppled him off the bench. I jumped over him and around the corner. Right off he knew something was up, so he scrambled after me.
“Collins and Jiggins,” says I.
“No n-n-need to bust my neck,” says Mark.
“How’d they git here?”
“Walked, most likely. Asked s-s-somebody how to get to Ludington.”
“How do we git there now?”