"It's no use," sighed Jump. "I don't want to do it, but there's no way out. I'd feel a lot better, Bi, if you'd take my share of the money and give it to him."
"Same here," agreed S. S. Without any sort of hesitation or argument, the patrol commissioned Bi to carry the two dollars and the one cent to the unfortunate peddler.
Bi raced down the road, while the other eight jogged slowly, awaiting his return. When he rejoined them, he was breathless but wore a satisfied smile.
"What happened? What did he say?" They were eager for the news.
"Well, he didn't understand at first; thought I was trying to buy something. When he did understand, though, that we wanted to give him the money, he bent down and began looking at the wheel, and something got in his eyes. I didn't wait to hear all his story, but he told me enough to give a pretty good idea. He has a family in Charles City, and he left every cent with them, to keep things going. But he wouldn't take our money as a gift; wanted to know where he should send it when he could repay the loan. So I gave him Bunny's name and address."
Specs was the first to speak. "I'm glad we helped him out," he said, "but now we'd better think about ourselves. What are we going to do, now that the whole outfit's—busted?"
Bunny shrugged his shoulders. "It would be better to have money, of course, but if we haven't any, we can manage somehow without it."
They were opposite the Jenkins farm. Through the pines, the house was visible, set far back from the highway. Specs halted.
"You mean that farmer there will pay any attention to us if we can't show him our money first?"