“And I’ll write to my guardian,” he declared energetically. “I’ll make Cran and old Doctor Clifton sit up and take notice.”
“Doctor Clifton?” queried Major Carroll.
“He’s a huge six-footer,” said Willie.
“Keeping a friendly eye on you youngsters, I suppose?”
“Perhaps he thinks he is,” chuckled the boy.
“Won’t he object to your staying at Border City?”
“No indeed!” answered Mr. Beaumont’s ward, ending his words with a peculiar little gasp.
If some of Major Carroll’s intimate friends had been at Border City for the next few days they might have noted another evidence of his eccentricity—he allowed Willie to amuse himself as much as he pleased in the hangar.
“Any lad who takes so great an interest in mechanics as he does should be encouraged,” he declared to Mr. Ogden, Senior.
Willie began to lose his habitual air of discontent; he became active, going errands for the Major with eagerness and a desire to please which would have made Mr. Beaumont open his eyes with astonishment.