Ronnie undressed quickly and soon he was in the water beside his brother. Bill appeared minutes later. His leg was still in a cast. “Darn old doctor!” he grumbled good-naturedly. “I sure wish he’d let me go in.”
However, Ronnie had devised a way by which Bill could at least get cooled off. After Bill had undressed, Ronnie and Phil bound his cast with a strip of canvas they had on hand for this purpose. Then the two bombarded Bill with bucketful after bucketful of water. “O.K.! O.K.!” Bill called for mercy. “Enough!”
The three lay down on a moss bank to dry, while Ronnie described his meeting with the surveyors. “And, Bill,” he went on, “we’ve been asked to a meeting tonight with the historical society, and Dad says he’ll drive us into town.”
Bill grinned. “It’s really beginning to look as though we might save the village after all!” he exclaimed. “We made over a hundred dollars exhibiting the glassware. Altogether, counting the money we found down in the culvert, and what we earned during the past two months taking tourists around the village, and what we got from selling the gold and silver coins to a collector, plus the exhibition money—why, we’ve got over three thousand dollars!”
Exhibiting the glassware had been Ronnie’s idea, but it was Mr. Caldwell who had done a great deal to make it a success. He had sent announcements to antique dealers throughout the vicinity, and many of them had come. Curious townspeople had come, too, and each visitor had been charged an admission fee of fifty cents.
“I wonder when Mr. Caldwell will be back,” Bill said as he struggled to get his pants over the cast and metal support. “He’s been gone almost two weeks now.”
“I guess it takes time to work out all those legal matters,” Ronnie answered.
Ronnie thought about Mr. Caldwell as he and Phil started for home. The day after Mr. Caldwell and the boys had been rescued from the culvert, Caldwell had paid a call on Grandfather. “I want to get a lawyer to make out papers that will relinquish all Jacob Williams’ claims to the deserted village,” he had announced. “Then I’ll go up to the penitentiary and have my brother sign them, too.”
“Supposing he refuses?” Grandfather had asked.
Caldwell had smiled. “I don’t think he will. He’s got ten years of his old sentence to finish—plus whatever he gets for escaping. I think if I offer him a small amount of money, he’ll see my way!”