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At nine o'clock Bud went ho very well satisfied with

himself for some reason which he did not try to analyze, but which

was undoubtedly his sense of having saved Bill fro away six

hundred dollars on a buht in his coat pocket of a

box of chocolates that he had bought for Marie Poor girl, it was kinda

tough on her, all right, being tied to the house noith the kid Next

spring when he started his run to Big Basin again, he would get a little

ca with him when the travel

wasn't too heavy She could stay at either end of the run, just as she

took a notion Wouldn't hurt the kid a bit--he'd be bigger then, and the

outdoors would s, Bud

walked briskly, whistling as he neared the little green house, so that

Marie would knoho it was, and would not be afraid when he stepped up

on the front porch

He stopped whistling rather abruptly when he reached the house, for it

was dark He tried the door and found it locked The key was not in the

letter box where they always kept it for the convenience of the first

one who returned, so Bud went around to the back and clih the

pantryHe fell over a chair, bus The electric light was hung in the center of the roo in the dark before he finally