[CHAPTER X]
ALTON SQUEEZES THROUGH
Instead of going on to Haylow, Willard entered Lykes and knocked at the door of Number 2. As he had suspected, Martin was there. So were Bob and Joe and Don Harris, Joe’s roommate. Don was only seventeen, although his size made him look older, and, like Joe, was a senior. His full name was Donald, but no one ever called him that. He played first base on the school nine and played it well.
Willard had to hear about the expedition to the new railway bridge and how Stacey and Bob had walked out to the end of the highest girder and then had had to sit down before they dared turn around!
“That’s all right,” Don expostulated in reply to the laughter. “That girder was only a foot wide when I started out on it and by the time I was at the end it had shrunk to about half an inch! And when I looked down the river was so far away I could just see it! Gosh, I thought for a minute I’d have to stay there until they’d finished the bridge so I could keep on across it!”
“I wanted to come back on my hands and knees,” confessed Bob, “and I’d have done it if I’d been alone! No more circus stunts for little Robert!”
“What were you doing all the afternoon?” asked Martin presently of Willard, and Willard told of his meeting with McNatt. The incident of the diving-rod amused them all hugely.
“That’s McNutt all over,” laughed Joe. “A couple of years ago someone found him over on that hill beyond Badger’s farm digging a hole. He said he was looking for fossil remains. Said the hill looked to him like a glacial—glacial whatyoucallit—”
“Moraine,” supplied Bob.
“Yes, moraine. He dug a place big enough for a cellar, I heard, but he never found anything but rocks. He’s a wonder, is Felix McNatt!”
“Is his name really Felix?” asked Martin.