"Where?" I wanted to know.
Jones shook his head. "I told him, 'Stanley, we been together a long time. You got friends besides me, I'm glad. Only, you know, I kind of feel responsible. Maybe I ought to meet your friends, huh? Why don't you take me to meet them?'
"'No,' says Stanley. 'Oh, no.' He wouldn't hear of it. I got to stay here and wait for him, he tells me."
"Well, sure," I told Jones. "How could you go with a man into his dream?"
"Yeah—only Stanley did take old Mr. Bootnose Bailey with him."
"What?" I exclaimed.
"Uh-huh. Stanley said he was going to prove it to me. He said he would take somebody along with him to this place and then he would bring one of his friends back here to visit. He said that would show me, would show everybody. And you know, Ed, I don't believe I much liked the way poor Stanley looked when he said that. He looked kind of mean."
"But they went? Both of them? And that's why old Bootnose isn't around?"
Jones nodded. "Yeah. Stanley promised Mr. Bootnose something would give him a real boot. They went. Stanley, last thing he said before I watched the two of them just sort of fade out, he said he would be back tomorrow evening. He wanted me to be sure to wait for him in the Yard. And fact is, Ed, I'm kind of uneasy about it all," he added.