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Show piranry Jtntel tins Tory evening," said tin liny. "I believe it's almost time." "Oh," fn i1 the friil suddenly, then Klip a'ltlpil vpry softly, "I'm frpp. Miss Rolling Stor-p luis gone to sloop standing lip! Oil, you're f roe too. Let's luirry." The old man hud begun to snore. Tliey hurried down the road, running run-ning as hard as they could. They got well out of sight of the old man and woman. "Weren't they horrible?" asked the boy. "But how strange that they should fall asjeep so suddenly." said the girl. "Not strange at all." said a voice, and looking they saw a creature with -iiiiisiiiiii THE ESCAPE. It had been a had time for the boy and the girl adventurers when they thought that they might be carried nwny in Mr. Moving Man's trunk. "Why do you want to put us in the trunk?" the girl bad asked. "We might find you could selJ for a pood deal at the market," the old man had said. "Well, won't you go In that way. please?" the boy had asked, pointing in the direction of the Hospitality, Hotel. "Xo sir," the old man had replied. "He hates that way," Miss Rolling Stone, or Mrs. Moving Man had said. She could be called by both, names correctly. "He's mad, you see, because he didn't get to the House of Secrets. He doesn't want any one else to get 1here. He didn't want the Jong journey there." The boy looked at the girl. They didn't know what to do. They were held tight and they looked at the now wide-open trunk. They couldn't bear to think they would be carried around in It, bumped this way and that, and perhaps suffocated ton, and yet they couldn't but believe that they would somehow got hack to the real road again so they could go on to thf House of Secrets. "And wp wpre to go to the Hos "Quite Flustered." a lovely face but with a great black patch over his heart. It was over where the heart should be and it was in the shape of a heart but they thought he had a beautiful face and a lovely, kind expression. "Who are you?" the hoy asked. "I'm a kind friend," said the crea-ture. crea-ture. He looked about the size of Mr. Wood Elf. "We're ton our way to the Hospitality Hos-pitality Hotel," said the boy. The creature held his arms over his chest as though to hide the black patch and as though he had made a great mistake not to hide It -in the first place. He seemed quite flustered. "They fell asleep, those two you left," said the creature, "because they cou'dn't keep awake any longer. They never can accomplish anything all the way through. They always have to stop before It is over. This time it was lucky for you. They're not full of harm, nor do they mean to be cross and all of that. They just go along trying everything and leaving it before it is finished. "To he sure they thought of taking you away in a trunk but. they wouldn't have taken you far. You'd have been too heavy and while the Moving Man carries that trunk he doesn't like to carry anything in it. And Miss Rolling Roll-ing Stone, or Mrs. Moving Man, cares not to carry anything either. She won't even carry a moss blanket to put in their cottage, and they never keep a cottage any length of time. They have no real home in consequence. conse-quence. "Xow boy and girl I say we have some soda water. There is a soda fountain down this road to refresh travelers on their way. You're on your way, I can see. That's what made Mr. Moving Man so mad. He wanted to keep you from getting tc 'he place he had wanted to go to but had never had the patience to keep on with the long journey. He Is one of these restless souls who makes everyone else restless, or tries to. "Xow, we'll go to the soda water fountain." |