Everybody’s Business.”
“Why that,” he said with a start, “must be the young savage with a stout heart who helped us out of a jam last night. Don’t be too hard on him, Captain.” Hastily he outlined the night’s adventure with the runaway balloon, and the part this youth had played.
“I’ll not be too hard on him,” the Captain promised. “In fact I think this may be the changing point in his career. Stranger things have happened.
“What’s your name?” he demanded as the young giant reached the pavement.
“Gunderson Shotts, that’s my name.” The youth grinned broadly. “But they call me Spider. I can climb, climb just anything at all.”
“Spider,” Johnny thought, “it’s a name that will stick. Looks like a giant spider, long arms, long legs, hairy head, big eyes. Spider.” He chuckled.
“Don’t you know,” the Captain demanded of the one who called himself Spider, “that you’re likely to break your neck?” He examined the lay of the bricks that had given the boy only an overlapping half inch at intervals of a foot, on which to cling and climb. “And if you fell, you’d like as not kill someone else in that fall.”
“They dared me, these—” He looked about in surprise. “Why! Where are they?”
“They’ve blown,” the Captain replied dryly. “Hawks go flapping away fast enough when a hunter comes round a corner. They’re a bad lot, and this is no place for a lad like you. Hop into the car.”
“You—you’re not going to take me to the station!” Spider’s cheeks paled.