“And the Bubble Man?” Jimmie tried to sit up.
“He’s dead. Couldn’t take his own medicine. Bad heart, the doctor thinks.”
“That’s good,” Jimmie whispered. “We got him at last.”
CHAPTER XXI
MORE ABOUT DIAMONDS
The whole affair left Jimmie feeling dizzy and a little sick. He was willing enough, next morning, to accept his father’s suggestion that he remain at home all day.
As he reclined on a heap of pillows in the sun-room, gazing dreamily out of the door, he saw Joe, Dick, Jerry, and Ned, his good school pals, practicing kick-offs and runs in the vacant lot across the way.
“Football,” he thought. “I used to play that.” Then, waking to sudden reality, he exclaimed, “Week after next high school opens and I have one more year of it. Hurray!”
Closing his eyes he called it all back, the gay throng, the shouting, the school yells, the band, the kick-off, the good feel of the ball as it dropped into his waiting arms, then the dash down the field.
“School days, school days,” he hummed. Yes, school days. They began next week. All these newspaper thrills would, for the time at least, belong to the past. They would remain only as half-forgotten dreams. Was he sorry? He did not know. Perhaps——
“Here’s the paper, son,” said his mother. “Such a remarkable picture on the front page.”