“We would,” said Jack Frost, “if we didn’t stop on the way. The Equator has probably gone in the opposite direction, intending to meet the Evening Star on the other side of the world. That would surprise her.”
“In that case,” said Nimbus, “Jack Frost and I had better start off in opposite directions and see which gets to the other side of the world first. The one who does can put a stop to this chase.”
“But we don’t know just which part of the other side they’re going to meet on,” objected Jack Frost.
“We can take a chance,” said Nimbus. “That’s what the Meteors will have to do, and we can beat them, because we have no tails to drag after us.”
“What shall I do?” said Billy.
“You can stay here and get him if he happens to pass,” said Nimbus.
Billy was a little troubled about this, but he was not the boy to admit that he was frightened, and, though his mouth trembled a trifle and he winked a little more rapidly than usual, he kept a brave face as his two friends each called a cloud out of the sky and sailed away upon it.
He had stood there but a few minutes when he heard the tinkling of a bell a little distance away. At first it rang slowly and at long intervals, then faster and faster, till at length it sounded like the triangle the man played in one corner of the orchestra in the theater at home.
Thinking there could be no harm in finding out where the sound came from, as the Equator was as little likely to alight in one place as another, he listened very carefully, then proceeded slowly toward the tinkling sound.
Soon he came out into the very clearing where the trolley car had reached the earth, and there stood the trolley car with the face of the Equine Ox protruding from the front door and wearing a very unhappy expression.