“Skedaddle, all of you!” mewed Button. “Don’t let them find us all together.”
“How long ago did you see him coming in this direction?” asked the chauffeur.
“Oh, about three hours.”
“Three hours! Oh, the dickens! In that time he might be half way to Paris. I thought you had seen him just before I came.”
“Well, he is somewhere around here, I bet.”
“If he is, he is probably laughing inside himself at the spectacle we make creeping along in the dark looking for him.”
Button went right back to the hospital and climbed up the rope that was still hanging from the window of Stubby’s ward. He thought he better go tell Stubby the latest plans while the rope was still there. He had very good luck indeed, and succeeded in getting to Stubby without being seen and in telling him what he had heard the men say and of Billy’s plans for them to join him as soon as he, Stubby, was able to use his leg.
“Isn’t it too provoking that I have to be laid up with a broken leg? Why couldn’t it have been my tail or an ear that got hurt? Then I could have traveled.”
“Never mind, old fellow! You will be all right in a day or two. In the meantime Billy can amuse himself by getting in more mischief, and I can pass the time by trying not to get into any here. I think I better vamoose now or some one will be coming and find me as I see it is about time they change the night shifts. I’ll see you in the garden to-morrow. Good-night and pleasant slumbers free from pain!”