“If he knows where George is,” says Mark, “maybe we kin git s-s-somethin’ out of him some way.”
“It’s worth t-tryin’,” says I.
“Anythin’s worth t-tryin’,” says he, “and everythin’s worth tryin’ when you’re in the fix we’re in. For a spell we’ll leave Silas Doolittle Bugg to run the mill. I guess he kin l-look after the manufacturin’ end with what help we kin give, and put all our time on f-findin’ George. We know Wiggamore’s l-lookin’ for him, and Wiggamore’s got money to look with. He kin hire men to do his lookin’. All we got is us and what b-brains we got.”
“Admittin’ we got any,” says I.
It was evening when we got home, but we got hold of Binney and Tallow and told them what had happened and how we was going to get all the freight-cars we needed; and we planned how we would meet next morning early, and two of us would keep watch on Miss Piggins’s house and the other two would lay for Tod Nodder. Mark and I were going after Nodder. That left it so that if anything happened one of each couple could stay to watch while the other went for help or to do any following that was necessary. Mark said it would be a pretty good idea to keep an eye on Wiggamore or any men that he had hanging around town.
That’s the way it turned out. Binney stayed to watch Miss Piggins. Tallow went mogging after a strange man with fancy clothes that let on he was a detective and was working for Wiggamore, and Mark and I went to hunt up Tod Nodder.
You could ’most always tell where to find Tod. It was the place where nobody would be like to come along and offer him a job. Tod was the kind that always complained about not having work, and then took mighty good care to hide somewheres where work couldn’t find him. Lazy! Whoo! Why, he was so lazy when he fished he did it with a night line, and then he hated to pull it in to take off the fish!
We stopped at the mill a minute, and Silas Doolittle come up to us, all excited.
“Say,” says he, “somebody was monkeyin’ around this mill last night. I was passin’ about nine o’clock and I seen a light. I come rushin’ right down. It looked like the light was ’way up toward the roof. Well, I busted right in and went rampagin’ up-stairs, and before I knowed I rammed right into a feller on the stairs. He was comin’ down as fast as I was goin’ up, and the way we come together would ’a’ made a railroad accident jealous. He got the best of it, though, for he was a-comin’ down-stairs. Yes, sir. He lammed right into me and clean upset me so’s I rolled all the way down, and doggone it if I didn’t leave about a peck of skin on them steps. Then he trompled right over the top of me and skedaddled. I couldn’t ketch him and I couldn’t find no harm he’d done. But after this I calc’late I’ll sleep right here into this mill. That’s what I’ll do, and if anybody comes fussin’ around I guess they’ll find out they got Silas Doolittle Bugg to reckon with.”
“Mighty good idee,” says Mark. “Say, we got two freight-cars comin’ in this m-mornin’. Git ’em loaded so’s they’ll ketch the noon freight.”