Chance of a Lifetime Read Online Free Page A

quickly. “Look here, old man,” he said, “you and I have got to have a good talk fest tonight. Suppose you come home with me for the night. Then we can get everything thrashed out. You know we’re partners. You’re taking my place, and it’s sort of up to me to see that you have everything in your outfit you need. Yes, that’s my part. Come on, old boy, let’s get down to brass tacks!”
    Bob looked at Alan with sudden wonder.
    “You’re great!” he said, with deep feeling in his voice. “What a fool I was! I used to think all that church going you did was just a pose. I called you a hypocrite once right in the school yard! And I believed you were. But now I see— Well, I can’t tell you how I feel about this. I’m not going to let you do anything more for me of course, but—it’s awfully decent and fine of you to talk that way.”
    “Come along, pard!” said Alan laughing. “We’ll settle our differences in private. Come, we haven’t any time to waste.”
    Alan gave him a push toward the door, but he paused before Sherrill.
    “Good night, Sherrill,” Bob said earnestly. “You’ve given me an awfully nice evening, and I shall always remember it. I used to think you were a snob, but now I see you’re real. I can’t thank you enough for letting me in on this pleasant evening.”
    Sherrill went to the door with them and called a happy good-night, watching them go down the walk, Alan’s arm flung across Bob’s shoulders as if they had been comrades for years.
    Suddenly Alan turned and sprang back toward her.
    “I’m carrying some of your property, Sherry.” He laughed, handing her a handkerchief. “You dropped this under the hammock when we came into the house, and I absentmindedly put it in my pocket.”
    Their fingers touched as Sherrill took her handkerchief, and she heard Alan’s low whisper, “It was great of you to do that, Sherry. He thinks you’re wonderful, and I can’t thank you enough.”
    “Oh, I was glad to have a part in it, Alan,” whispered Sherrill, “and say, Alan, I’ve been thinking. I shouldn’t wonder if, after all, this would turn out to be the chance of your lifetime. I think you’ve gone a long way toward saving Bob!”
    He gave her fingers a squeeze and sprang back to Bob and they walked down the street, whistling together an old school song, a thing they never had done before.

    “Who was that other boy, Sherrill?” asked her mother, looking up with pleasant curiosity in her face.
    “That was Bob Lincoln, Mother.”
    “What! Not the Lincoln boy that Alan dislikes so much? Not the boy that made so much trouble in school and was always doing wild things? Not the one that Alan fought with?”
    “Yes, Mother,” laughed Sherrill. “The same boy, but you’d be surprised how nice he is, and how grateful he was for the sandwiches and cake. He hadn’t had much supper. You know his sister died not long ago, and he has to get his meals almost anywhere.”
    “Well, but, my dear! How did he come to call on you? I’m sure he’s not the kind of boy you would want to have for a friend. I hope he isn’t going to start in now and bother you coming here. I’m sure your brother would not like it at all. Keith is very particular about you, you know.”
    “Oh, he didn’t come to see me at all, Mother; he just ran in to speak to Alan a minute—on business—and we asked him in.”
    “Well, but, my dear, it isn’t wise to get too intimate with a boy like that. He will think he can come here again. I’m surprised that Alan didn’t take him away at once. It’s all well enough to be kind, but I really couldn’t have you asking a boy like that here regularly. Sherrill, you never stop to think about things like that—”
    “Listen, Mother dear. You needn’t worry about Bob. He is going to Egypt day after tomorrow, to be gone three years on an archaeological expedition with Professor Hodge. So, you see, there’s nothing to worry about at all. He came to ask Alan