But even Phil hadn’t complained. There they were at last—the six crates and the metal box, piled together in the center of the padlocked building. The rest seemed easy in comparison. Two trips for each of them and the crates would be safely stored in their office, ready for the truck to pick them up.
Ronnie was all smiles as he and the others stole a minute or two of their precious time to sit down and catch their breaths. “Golly,” he said, “I never once thought this would be such an exciting day when I got up this morning.”
“Neither did I,” Bill agreed. “When I saw the rain pouring down, I thought for sure I was in for a real boring day. The most I thought we’d get done was to maybe clean up another building.”
“And when I got up,” Phil added, “I told myself to turn around and go back to sleep.”
Bill looked over at Phil curiously. “How come you’re so lazy, Phil?”
Phil grinned back at him. “It just comes naturally, I guess.”
Ronnie got up. He was on pins and needles for fear something might happen before they got the money and glassware safely stowed away. He looked over at the crates. “Maybe we could each carry two of them,” he suggested, “and make it all in one trip.”
“Not me!” Phil protested. “After hauling them up from below, you’re lucky I’ll agree to carry one.”
“Phil’s right,” Bill agreed. “We wouldn’t want to drop and break anything. This glassware is pretty valuable, I’ll bet.”
They put on their raingear and boots. Then each selected a crate and moved it over to the trap door in the rear of the building. Ronnie set his down so he could remove the section of wall.