“Why, yes, he was some touchy, that’s a fact,” answered the other, slowly, as if unable to understand what Frank was driving at.
“I saw something of what it contained; and Lanky, a sick woman might want the loaf of bread, wedge of cake and the other food; but tell me, what would she care for boy’s trousers made of corduroy, like the pair I’ve seen Watkins Kline wear on Saturdays, when he was off playing?”
Lanky stared all the harder, but the truth began to seep into his brain.
“Tell me about that!” he exclaimed. “I see what you mean now, Frank; Rufus is taking supplies to his brother, who is hiding somewhere in the woods with Bill Klemm and Asa Barnes! And he didn’t want us to know it.”
CHAPTER XVI
LANKY BECOMES A “BARKER”
“That’s what I was thinking, Lanky,” Frank remarked, smiling at the excited appearance of his lengthy chum, who had never fully mastered the secret of controlling his emotions.
“Well, now, if that don’t just beat the Dutch!” exclaimed the other, as if almost too amazed to express himself properly. “And Frank, I don’t believe either of us would ’a’ got on to the curves of Rufus, if it hadn’t been for the accident he met with, that broke open his bundle.”
“You’re right there, Lanky,” answered Frank, nodding his head in the affirmative.
“The boys are hiding out somewhere in the woods, afraid to come home,” went on the tall boy, with a wide grin; “here days have passed, and yet they haven’t showed up. Most people are shakin’ hands with themselves, and sayin’ it’s a good riddance of bad rubbish; but their folks are worryin’ some, Frank. It’s low-down mean of Watkins Kline to scare his mother so bad. She never would believe he was bad, you know.”
“I wonder what’s up, and why they hang out there all this while?” Frank mused.