Vance judged that it had been struck by a temporary setback of some sort, which happened to be the fact.
The boy saw the outlines of five big elevator buildings in the distance down by the river, and he strolled over in that direction.
He avoided the main business streets, going toward the great Mississippi by a roundabout way that brought him to the river bank a mile above the objects that he aimed at.
He smiled to himself at the idea of taking so much trouble, which in the end might prove to have been time spent to no purpose; but when he drew near to the doorway leading to the office of the first elevator he suddenly came to a different conclusion.
For there, sunning himself on an inverted cask outside of the entrance, he spied a familiar figure.
A quick glance at the person’s face enabled Vance to identify him.
It was the dapper young Chicagoian, Guy Dudley, as large as life.
CHAPTER VII.
THE REASON WHY VANCE THORNTON WAS TICKLED ALMOST TO DEATH.
“What the dickens is he doing in Elevatorville?” ejaculated Vance in great astonishment. “I thought he was attending to business for his father in Kansas City.”