The Preposterous Adventures of Swimmer by Alexander Key Read Free Book Online Page A

I’ll never see my friends again.”
    â€œOh, maybe you will.”
    â€œI don’t see how—unless I run away and take my friends with me.”
    â€œThat’s an interesting idea,” Clarence said slowly. “Let’s think about it. It’s about sundown, so you’d better get on back to the house. I don’t want to see you with another black eye tomorrow.”
    For a minute after Penny and Scruff had gone, Swimmer remained by the hole, digesting what he had heard. It gave him an entirely new view of things. Finally, after Clarence had moved out of sight, he crept painfully back to the floor of the hollow.
    Willow and Ripple looked at him curiously. Thoughts flashed between them.
    Is it safe outside now?
    It is safe. The black man is still there, but he is my friend .
    Then we will go and play in the pools until dark. We wish you could come with us. It’s always more fun when three can play together .
    Swimmer told them it would be many days before he could play. But I’ll follow you out , he added. I must talk to my friend .
    He was so tired and full of hurts that he hated even to move again. But after a few minutes to build up his gumption, he forced himself into the water and surfaced by one of the rocks under the tree.
    Clarence was somewhere downstream. Faintly above the sound of the creek, Swimmer could hear him calling, “Swimmer? Where are you, Swimmer? Please come out!”
    Swimmer’s first inclination was to paddle down to Clarence with the current. But on second thought he climbed out over the rocks and began limping slowly along the game trail that followed the stream.
    Before many more hours, sure as day and night, some gloopy hound would pick up his scent at the other creek and follow it here. It would be downright stupid to allow the scent to stop at the beech tree. To leave a good false trail, of course, he would have to swim back to the tree. But that was a detail he could worry about later.
    Suddenly he caught sight of Clarence in an open spot ahead. He tried to call out, but at that instant something seemed to go wrong with his throat. He couldn’t even manage a froggy squawk. But Clarence turned, evidently attracted by the tinkling of the bell. There was a gasped “Glory be!” and he came on the run.
    It was really great to have old Clarence make such a fuss over him. The splinted leg came in for a world of attention. “Yessir,” said Clarence, nodding, “that Penny, she did a mighty fine job on you! She’s a wonderful kid. I had a long talk with her. If you’d just come a little earlier—”
    â€œOh, I heard you,” Swimmer admitted. “I—I heard all you said.”
    â€œYou what? ”
    â€œI was up in a hollow tree, and I eaves—eaves—what’s the blatted word?”
    â€œEavesdropped.”
    â€œThat’s right. I eavesdropped. I couldn’t help it. I—”
    â€œYou didn’t have to hide, for Pete’s sake! Why didn’t you come out?”
    â€œBecause I knew what you were thinking. You were thinking, dong ding it, that the best place for me was back at the lab, and I was afraid—”
    â€œIt is the best place for you,” Clarence insisted. “But I’ll never take you there unless you’re willing to go.”
    â€œWhat about your job?”
    Clarence chuckled. “Doc hit the ceiling when I phoned him you’d escaped. He told me never to come back unless I brought you with me. Pshaw, I don’t need a job. I’m a retired army sergeant with a pension. Anyway, you’ve upset the applecart, and Doc’s having a howling tizzy. He’s offering a big reward for you.”
    â€œHow much?”
    â€œTwenty thousand dollars.”
    Swimmer had little regard for money and he was not impressed. “Aw, fiffle!” he muttered, like a disgusted gnome. “He paid seven times that for a galumping horse that