“Ha! Hum!” exclaimed the manager, looking at Jack sharply. The runaway noticed that Mr. Paine was a very pompous sort of person. He wore a red vest, with yellow spots on it, a big red tie, in which sparkled a large stone, and he had an immense watch chain.
Jack wondered if the manager was not going to say anything more than “Ha! Hum!” But presently the big man made another remark.
“What can you do?” he asked.
“Well, not very much, perhaps,” replied Jack. “I’d like to learn to be a clown, but I’d be willing to knock around and do almost anything for a while, until I learned the business.”
“Run away from home?” asked the manager snappily.
“Yes,” replied Jack quickly, determined to tell as much as was necessary of what had happened.
“Ha! Hum! First time I ever knew a boy who had run away from home to admit it,” spoke the manager. “You deserve credit for that, anyway. What’s the trouble?”
Thereupon Jack told of the unjust accusation of the old professor, and what had happened to him since he had left Westville.
“So you want to be a clown, eh?” said the manager when Jack’s story was finished. “Had any training?”
“I used to take the part in amateur shows me and my chums got up, and I did a stunt on a vaudeville stage one night.”