“Three dollars and sixty-four cents, sir.”
“Here is ten more. You must remember to pay it back. It will take you
to the city and give you a little extra to come and go on. I have backed
that letter to my brother with full address and directions how to get
to the Trident Wrecking Company. Mind your eye, keep your money deep in
your pocket, and go straight.”
I realized that we were on the way to the railroad station at Levant
Lower Comers.
“I’ll do what I can to stand up for you in the current talk that will
be made, young Sidney,” said Landlord Vose. “I won’t say where you have
gone, and you can bet that I won’t give it out how I helped you to go
there. But I can tell folks how you have been sitting evenings with me
instead of cutting up snigdom. I’ll help your name what I can.”
“I have been trying to get my tongue loose so as to thank--”
“Don’t go to spoiling a good thing at the last minute,” he snapped.
“Come back and thank me when we both are sure that this jail-robbing was
the best thing that could be done under the circumstances. I had only
short notice and I took a chance that it was the right thing to do.”
So, after a time, we came to the railroad station, and he left me. I
sneaked in the shadows till the night train came along.
After this fashion I left Levant. Looking ahead or looking behind, I did
not feel especially joyous.