“O heaben’s mighty nigh,
Mighty nigh, mighty nigh,
Ef you got a eye fer visions
In de sky, in de sky!”
When young Ready lay beside Shin Bone’s boy in the automobile, Skeeter felt almost happy.
“It ’pears to me like I got dis job by de tail wid a downhill pull!” he exulted, as he started his machine and drove away from Dirty-Six with a lighter heart.
“I’se gwine take dese babies to my cabin,” he decided. “Dem squallin’ womans kin wait fer deir brats—dey don’t ’preciate whut I done fer ’em nohow. But Marse John might git peeved up ef he missed dis automobile an’ I cain’t affode to git in no lawsuit wid de cotehouse.”
Entering Sheriff John Flournoy’s yard, Skeeter Butts drove his little rattling runabout up the asphalt runway toward the garage in as nearly perfect silence as he could command.
Quickly he dismounted and pushed the little machine back where it belonged. Then he lifted the sleeping children out of the machine and started toward his own cabin.
Instantly a long shaft of white light shot across his path and he scampered out of the way, hiding behind some shrubbery which grew close to the house. He looked down the runway and his hair stood on end.
Flournoy’s big automobile was coming up the drive, its powerful light turning from side to side, illuminating every inch of the way. Skeeter did not know what moment a turn of the wheel would cause the light to flash across his body, so he slipped along the side of the house out to the front.
Alas! Standing at the front gate where she had just left the car was Mrs. Flournoy, and the electric light upon the corner made the front lawn as bright as day.
Skeeter noted that Mrs. Flournoy’s back was turned to him, so he scampered up the front steps and entered the front door just as Mrs. Flournoy turned to come up the walk.