The Clockwork Twin by Walter R. Brooks Read Free Book Online Page A

“Get me out of this, will you?” He jerked and shook at the wheel, but his head was stuck fast.
    Hank backed out of his stall and walked over and looked at the pig, and Jinx joined him.
    â€œWe’ve got him where we want him now, eh, Hank?” said the cat.
    â€œLooks like he was going to stay there for a spell, anyway,” said Hank.
    â€œOh, quit being funny!” said Freddy angrily. “Can’t you do something? Catch hold of me and pull.”
    â€œWe could if you weren’t so fat,” said Hank, “but there ain’t anything for anybody to get hold of. There’s your tail, of course, but I dunno. It ain’t much of a tail, and if I was to give a good yank on it, I wouldn’t say but it’d come off. Try it if you say so, though.”
    â€œNo, no!” said the pig anxiously.
    â€œI’ve got it,” said Hank suddenly. He turned with his back to the wheel, lifted one of his iron-shod hind hoofs, glanced over his shoulder to aim, and then kicked hard against the rim. The wheel flew off of the wagon with a crack and it and the pig slid across the floor.
    Freddy struggled to his feet with the wheel still around his neck. “Now you have done it!” he said crossly. “I’ll never get it off now. There’s nothing to push against.”

    â€œWell, I shouldn’t mind,” said Jinx with a grin. “Looks kind of nice that way. You look kind of like Queen Elizabeth, with a big ruff around her neck. Eh, Hank?”
    â€œMaybe his head would slip through if you was to soap it,” said the horse.
    â€œThat’s an idea!” said Jinx. He dashed out of the barn and was back presently with a piece of soap. “Come over to the watering trough, Freddy. I couldn’t get kitchen soap; Mrs. Bean was there. So I snuck upstairs and got some of her best soap out of the bathroom. It’s perfumed, I guess. Do you mind?”
    â€œI don’t care what it is,” said Freddy. “Get me out of this thing.”
    So Jinx went to work and shampooed the pig thoroughly. Freddy squealed and twisted, for a good deal of the soap got in his eyes and mouth. But when Jinx said: “O.K. Now pull,” his head slipped out easily.
    Freddy didn’t dare open his eyes, so his friends led him down to the duck pond. Alice and Emma, the two ducks, who were swimming about like two white powder puffs in their little pond, began to quack nervously when they saw this strange animal with the body of a pig and a shapeless white head of soapsuds.
    â€œIt’s all right, girls,” shouted Jinx. “It’s only the great detective in disguise.”
    â€œGood gracious!” said Alice. “How clever! I should never have known him.”
    â€œNor should I, sister,” said Emma. “Mercy, you’d never guess he was a pig. And he smells so nice. But what is he disguised as, Jinx?”
    â€œA marshmallow,” said the cat. “Put him in a candy box and tie him up with a pink ribbon, and you’d never know the difference.”
    â€œI guess you could tell when you bit into him,” said Hank.
    â€œOh, come on, come on!” said Freddy angrily. “Get me into the water.”
    â€œYou asked for it,” said Jinx, and he led the pig to the edge and shoved him in.
    You hardly ever find a pig who is an expert swimmer, but then you hardly ever find one who is a good detective. Freddy was both. He swam across the pond with a fine racing stroke, then came back under water and stuck his head up between the two ducks, scaring them good. Then he climbed out and chased Jinx, who hated to get wet, twice around the pond and up a tree. And then he sat down and laughed good-naturedly.
    â€œCome on down, Jinx,” he said. “I won’t shake water on you. I’m really much obliged to you. And I want to find out about that explosion.”
    So Jinx came down and they all three sat down on the bank, and