CHAPTER XII
NEARING LUMBERVILLE
Bert Bobbsey was the first to spring to the window and look down whenhis sister said this. As the rooms Mr. Bobbsey had taken were on thetenth floor it would have been quite a fall for Freddie if he hadtumbled out. But after one look Bert said:
"Freddie couldn't have fallen from here. There's an iron railing allaround the outside of the window, and even Freddie couldn't getthrough."
"I wonder where he is!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "I'm sure I saw himhere a moment ago!"
"Yes, he was here," said Nan. "I washed a speck of dirt off his chin,and then Flossie wanted me to wash her hands."
"But I washed my own hands, I did!" exclaimed Flossie, looking at herpink palms.
"And the soap slid all over the floor and every time I picked it up itslid some more; didn't it, Nan?" she asked with a laugh.
"Yes," answered the older girl. "But where can Freddie be?"
"That's what I'm wondering," added Mrs. Bobbsey. "We must find him."
"I guess he went out into the hall," said Bert. "There's a boy in therooms next door about as old as Freddie, and I saw them talkingtogether yesterday."
Mrs. Bobbsey hurried into the hall outside their apartment in thehotel. Bert, Nan and Flossie followed, Flossie still laughing at thefunny way the cake of soap had slid around the bathroom when shewashed her hands.
Mrs. Bobbsey looked up and down the corridor, but she saw nothing ofher little boy. She was hurrying toward the elevators, where the redlight burned at night, when she met one of the chambermaids who lookedafter the rooms and made up the beds.
"Are you looking for your little boy?" asked the maid, smilingpleasantly at Mrs. Bobbsey and the children.
"Yes, I am," answered Freddie's mother. "Have you seen him?"
"Yes," was the answer. "You needn't look for him, I gave him themoney."
"You gave him the money! What money?" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "Ididn't send him for any money."
"Why, I saw him come out of your room and start for the elevator," themaid went on. "I was working across the hall. I heard your little boysaying that he couldn't get in without money and then he looked at me.He asked me if I had eleven cents and I gave it to him."
"You gave my little boy Freddie eleven cents?" asked Mrs. Bobbseywondering if it were all a joke. "Why did you do that?"
"Because he said he wanted it to get into the moving picture placejust down the street," the chambermaid said. "I thought you had lethim go, and that he had forgotten the money. It's ten cents forchildren to get in afternoons, you know, and a penny for war tax. Igave it to him."
"Dear me!" exclaimed Mrs. Bobbsey. "The idea of his doing that! Whichmoving picture place was it?"
"I know!" broke in Bert. "It must be the one we were in yesterdaywhere they had the cowboy and Indian scenes. Freddie has gone thereagain."
"He did want to see an Indian," added Nan.
"But would they let such a little boy in all alone?" asked Mrs.Bobbsey.
"Oh, lots of the children get grown-ups to take them in," thechambermaid explained. "I've often seen 'em do it."
"But I don't want Freddie going by himself or with people he doesn'tknow!" said the little boy's mother. "But it was kind of you to givehim the money, and here is your change back," she said to the hotelmaid. "But now we must get Freddie."
"I'll get him," offered Bert. "I know just where the place is."
"I wish you would," returned Mrs. Bobbsey. "Bring him right back here.I shall have to scold him a little."
Bert went down in the elevator. The man running the big wire cage,which lifted people up and down instead of having them go by thestairs, nodded and smiled at Bert.
"I took yo' little brother down awhile ago," said the elevator man,who was colored like Sam Johnson.
"Yes, he ran away," replied Bert.
"Guess you'll find him at de movies!" laughed the elevator man. "Hehad 'leven cents, an' he was talkin' 'bout Indians an' cowboys."
"Yes, he's crazy about 'em," answered Bert. "We're going out West youknow."
"Is you?" asked the man, as the elevator went down. "Well, de West ama mighty big place. I suah hopes yo' l'il brother doan git lost in debig West."
"We'll have to keep watch over him," returned Bert, as he got out ofthe car and hurried down the street toward the moving picture theater.On the way he was wondering as to the best way of getting Freddie outof the show. It would be dark inside, Bert knew, though the picture onthe screen made it light at times. But it would be too dark to pickFreddie out of the crowd, especially as the theater was a large placeand Bert did not know where his small brother would be sitting.
"I guess I'll have to speak to the girl that sells tickets, and maybeshe can tell me how to find Freddie," thought Bert.
But when he reached the moving picture theater he had no trouble atall. For Freddie was there, and he was outside, and not inside at all.And the reason Freddie had not gone in was for the same reason that anumber of other boys and girls were standing outside the theater.
In the lobby, or the open place near the ticket window, stood a tallman, wearing a red shirt, a big hat with a leather band on it, and,around his neck, a large purple handkerchief. The man wore big boots,and his trousers, instead of being of cloth as were those of Bert'sfather, were made of sheepskin.
"Oh, he's a cowboy!" exclaimed Bert. And so the man was. At least hewas dressed as some cowboys dress, especially in moving pictures, andthis man was standing in front of the theater to advertise thephotoplay and draw a crowd.
The crowd was there, and Freddie was right up in front, looking withopen eyes and open mouth at the cowboy, who was walking back andforth, letting himself be looked at.
"Freddie! Freddie!" called Bert, when he had worked his way close tohis little brother. "What you doing here?"
"I'm going to the show!" declared Freddie. "I want to see the wildcows again. And look, Bert! Here's a cowboy like those we're going tosee a lot of when we get out West!"
Freddie spoke so loudly that many in the crowd laughed, as did thecowboy himself. Then as the big man in the red shirt and sheepskintrousers happened to remember that he was there to advertise the showhe began saying:
"Step right inside, ladies and gentlemen, and boys and girls. See thebig cattle round-up and the Indian raid! Step in and see the cowboystaming the wild horses!"
"Come on in!" called Freddie to Bert. "I want to see it! I want to seethe show! I've 'leven cents! The lady in the hotel gave it to me!"
"No, you can't go in now!" said Bert firmly, as he kept hold of hislittle brother's hand. "Mother want you. She didn't like it becauseyou ran away. We thought maybe you fell out the window."
"But I didn't!" cried Freddie. "I came down in the levelator, and Iwant to see the show."
"Not now," said Bert kindly, as he led Freddie out of the crowd."Mother is going to take us all down town to buy things."
"But I want to see the show!" insisted Freddie, and he was going tocry, Bert feared, when there appeared, out in front of the hotel, anItalian with a hurdy-gurdy.
Freddie was always ready to look at something like this, and soon hewas in the crowd listening to the man grind out the tunes.
"I'm going to give him this penny," said Freddie, showing the coinsthe chambermaid had given him. "I'll keep the ten cents, and maybe Ican get another penny to go to the movies. But I'll give the man thisone."
"All right," agreed Bert, glad enough to get Freddie away from thecowboy. And then Freddie seemed to forget all about wanting to go tothe movies in listening to the music.
By this time Mrs. Bobbsey, Nan and Flossie had come down from theirrooms. They saw Bert and Freddie in the crowd around the hurdy-gurdyman.
"Oh, I'm glad you have found him!" exclaimed Freddie's mother, as shesaw her little son. "You did very wrong to run away," she added.
Freddie looked sorry, for he knew he was being scolded.
"I--I didn't go into the movies," he said, "and I have
ten cents left.I gave a penny to the man," and he showed his mother the ten-centpiece in his chubby fist.
"You must never do such a thing again, Freddie," went on Mrs. Bobbsey."Now I'm going to take that ten cents away from you, and when you wantto go to the movies you must ask me."
"Will you take me to see the cowboy after we go shopping?" the littlefellow wanted to know.
"I don't believe we'll have time," Mrs. Bobbsey answered, trying notto smile. "We must get ready to leave for Lumberville then."
"Oh, that'll be fun!" cried Freddie. "I want to see the big trees.Maybe I'll climb one."
"And that's something else you must not do!" went on his mother. "Youmust not go out in the woods nor climb trees alone."
"I won't. Bert will come with me," said Freddie.
Then the Bobbsey twins went shopping with their mother, and that nightthey again got aboard a sleeping car and started for Lumberville,which was reached the next morning.
And when Flossie and Freddie and Bert and Nan opened their eyes andlooked from the car window they saw a strange sight.