CHAPTER XVI
THE SECRET OF THE PIANO LEG
“Jumpin’ Jupiter! Great balls of fire! The little scallawags has escaped!”
Scoop nudged me under the bed as our furious jailer tore up and down the room like a crazy man.
I knew what was in my companion’s mind. He was tickled in the thought that it had been taken for granted, from the seeming vacancy of the room, that we had vanished from our prison.
The crazy acting one was now at the window.
“Yes, sir, by gum, they made a rope out of my best bed sheets—the little villains!—an’ got away through the windy. What do you know about that? An’ me a-sittin’ downstairs all the while with my hands folded like a’ ol’ dumb-bell. My best sheets! Wough! If I had my hands on ’em I’d shake the pants off em, by gum. Yes, sir.… Hey! What’s this? A pair of pants! An’ after me sayin’.… Money in the pockets, too. [[166]]Five, ten, twenty, twenty-five, thirty dollars. An’ here’s eight more dollars in another pocket.”
Scoop made a queer throat sound.
“Jerry, is he counting our money?”
“I guess so,” I whispered back, miserable in the loss of our working capital and profits. He had my eight dollars, too.