He stopped suddenly, and a lump came into his throat, while there was suspicious moisture in his eyes.
“This is the limit!” the boy exclaimed, at length. “I’m not going to stand it! I’ll skip out! I’ll run away! I’ll go anywhere rather than stay in this house any longer!
“Whatever happens to me, or wherever I go I can’t be much worse off than I have been here, with old Klopper and his sister. I’ve got a little money left, and I guess I can get work somewhere. I’ll pack up my clothes and leave. Dad wouldn’t blame me, if he knew. Neither would mother. I’ll go; that’s what I’ll do!”
Once he had formed this resolution Jack set about ways and means. First he looked to see how much money he had.
“Two dollars and fifteen cents,” he said, as he counted the change. “Not an awful lot, but I’ll have to make it do. I wish there was another show coming to town. Maybe I could make a little money doing my clown stunt on amateur night. But I haven’t any time to wait for such a thing as that. I’ve got to get out at once.”
Next he began to consider what he had better take with him. He had several suits of clothes, and a plentiful supply of other garments. Selecting the best he placed them in his dress-suit case.
“Now to get away,” he murmured. “The professor will have to go to town for an officer, and he can’t get back inside a half hour. I’ve got about fifteen minutes left. Guess I’d better go by the window. That old cat of a sister of his will probably be on the watch downstairs if I go out the door.”
Jack gave a last look around the room that had been his for the past year. There were no very pleasant memories connected with it. He saw his school books lying on a shelf.
“I won’t need you, where I’m going,” he said. “The term is almost closed. By the time I get ready to come back, or hear from my folks I can start a new term, but I hope I’ll never have anything more to do with Professor Klopper.”
Jack went to the window to look out, to see if it would be safe to drop the suit case, and then follow himself. To his surprise, coming over the back path, which he often used as a short cut to the village, he saw the professor and a policeman.