he locomotive seemed like a big lion that had just been
going to spring at us.

"Hurrah!" we heard the fellows down in the car calling.

"P-f-f-f-f-f-f," the locomotive went.

"Let _me_ do it! Let _me_ do it!" Pee-wee yelled.

I took the piece of glass out and leaned back against the tank. All of a
sudden I saw something else sprawled all over the sheet. It was the
right way around, too, for the engineer. I guess Pee-wee had been
carrying it in his pocket. Anyway, there were spots on it where the soot
had been wiped off. But it was easy to read it, and this is what it
said:

MUCH OBLIGED, MISTER

Honest, can you beat that kid?

CHAPTER XXVIII

"SEEN IN THE MOVIES"

I guess the fellows down in the car must have seen the notice where it
was printed kind of faint like, against a hill, because they couldn't
have seen it on the screen. Anyway, they set up a howl and began
shouting up out of the windows. They're a crazy bunch.

"Show them Pee-wee peeling potatoes! Show them Pee-wee flopping
flip-flops!" they began yelling.

"Show them the one of me stirring soup," the kid said, grabbing me by
the arm; "that's the best one!"

I said, "You crazy Indian, do you think those people in the flyer are
there to see a movie show? Keep still, here come a couple of men with
lanterns."

"They're going to penetrate the mystery," Pee-wee said. I guess he got
that out of some book, hey? _Penetrate the mystery._

I said, "As long as they didn't penetrate this car, I'm satisfied."

We could see two lights bobbing along toward us from the train. Even
with lanterns it must have been a pretty risky job, walking those ties.
All the while Pee-wee and I were taking down the sheet, and as soon as
we loosened it from the sticks, the fellows down in the car pulled them
in.

"Look how clear it shows against the hill, now the sheet isn't up," I
said to Pee-wee.

I guess you know what I meant, all right. Even through the sheet the
printing had shown kind of dim against a hill in back of the train, but
with the sheet taken down it showed pretty clear and it seemed awful
funny. And besides, now that the sheet was down we had a good look at
the train; the light from the movie apparatus seemed to shine right
along the tops of the cars.

All of a sudden, Pee-wee grabbed me by the arm and said, "Look! _Look!_
On the top of the second car. Look! Do you see? Right beside that long
sort of a boiler thing."