and
have your visit, and John will bring you back. Your job will be waitin'
for you, and I promise you I'll take you to St. Louis and back to
Havaner."

"No," said Mitch, "we'll stick to our jobs." Then the captain says,
"You're fired till Saturday. I won't have you around till Saturday.
There's goin' to be an Odd Fellows' Excursion, and it's no place for
boys, and so you can make the best of it."

Then John said, "That's the thing to do, boys. I'll play the fiddle for
you; Aunt Caroline will be glad to see you, and we'll have a good time."

Mitch looked disappointed, but there we were. We couldn't stay on the
boat, there was nothin' to do in Havaner, so we gave up.

And by and by we left the boat, saying good-by to the captain, and went
with John over into town, and down to the court house to get his team to
go home.

CHAPTER XX

John went to the rack to untie his horses and Mitch and me was standin'
off waitin' to get in the wagon. Mitch said in kind of a low voice,
"This don't seem right to me. I've got a kind of feelin' we'll not come
back; that we'll miss the boat or somethin'. I feel a little as if we're
being tricked."

I said, "No, Mitch, how can it be? You don't think John Armstrong came
on purpose to the boat to catch us, do you?"

"No," said Mitch.

"He couldn't know we're on the boat. Well, then, where's the trick?"

Said Mitch, "Well, he knows our pas, he knows we'd started for St.
Louis, and maybe just as a good turn to our pas, he fixed it with the
captain to get us off the boat and bring us to his house."

Says I, "That can't be, Mitch. In the first place, he's wanted us to
visit him for a long while, and in the next place, what'd be the use of
him interferin' this way and takin' us to his house? He knows we could
steal out of the window to-night, or walk away to-morrow mornin'. It
ain't only six miles from his house to Havaner, and we can be back here
by Saturday in spite of anything."

Mitch says, "Yes, but suppose he telegraphs or somethin' to our folks,
and they come and get us."

"Well," says I, "if we see any sign of that, we'll sneak. Besides, John
don't know enough to telegraph. He never telegraphed in his life. And
the mail is too slow. I tell you what let's do, let's stay with John
to-night and to-morrow after dinner wander off and come back here."

"That's it," said Mitch. "That is what we'll do. But anyway you take it
the jig's up if they want it to be. Because they