John Fitzgerald GB 04 Great Bra Read Online Free

going I’ll make a fortune.”
    “Have you gone plumb loco?” Sweyn asked. “What candy store?”
    Tom closed his suitcase and put it back on the rack. “The candy store I’m going to open at the academy,” he said, rubbing his hands together. “I’ll double my money on every bar of candy I sell.”
    “No you won’t,” Sweyn said. “There is no possible
     
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    way for you to smuggle enough candy into the academy to start a candy store. And I’m not going to let you smuggle in even those twelve bars. I’ll tell Father Rodriguez they are in your suitcase.”
    Tom was as flabbergasted as a duck who discovers it can’t swim. “Do you mean to tell me you would inform on your own brother?” he asked.
    “I can’t help it,” Sweyn said. “I promised Mom and Dad that I would keep an eye on you. And if you get into any trouble they are going to blame me.”
    Tom munched on his bar of candy while he put his great brain to work. “I sure feel sorry for you if you do tell,” he finally said. “That would force me to tetl all the kids at the academy that my big brother is a tattletale. And that, S.D., will make you about as popular as a skunk in a parlor.”
    Sweyn was beat and knew it. “That’s blackmail,” he said. “But all right. I want a signed statement from you that any trouble you get into at the academy is your own fault. I’ll need it to show to Mom and Dad when you get expelled.”
    “That is fair enough,” Tom said.
    He got down his suitcase and removed a notebook and pencil from it. Holding the suitcase on his knees he wrote:
    To Whom It May Concern:
    No matter what happens to me at the Catholic Academy for Boys I take all the blame personally. T. D. Fitzgerald
    He tore the page from the notebook and handed it to Sweyn. “Does that satisfy you?” he asked.
     
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    Sweyn read the note. “I’m satisfied,” he said.
    Tom was no dummy. He handed the pencil and notebook to Sweyn. “Now write what I tell you,” he said. “To whom it may concern: I promise not to interfere with anything my brother does at the Catholic Academy for Boys. And sign it.”
    Sweyn wrote the statement and handed it to Tom. “I’m not interfering,” he said. “Just giving you some brotherly advice. Every once in a while they have an inspection at the academy. The priests search your locker, desk, suitcase, and any other place you might hide candy or magazines we aren’t supposed to read or anything else that might be forbidden.”
    “That is my worry now, not yours,” Tom said. Then he took the three silver dollars from his pocket and began jingling them in his hand.
    “Where did you get all that money?” Sweyn asked, as astonished as could be.
    Tom told him about the marked deck of cards and the poker players. Sweyn couldn’t help feeling a little envious. Tom had made a neat profit of four dollars and twenty cents on his first train ride and twenty-five cents of that was formerly Sweyn’s money. Papa had often said when a person starts to envy another person the devil is right there to whisper in his ear. Right then the devil was whispering to Sweyn how he could get even.
    “The money won’t do you any good at the academy,” he said. “There is no place to spend it.”
    “What’s the matter with spending it outside the academy?” Tom asked.
    “We only get outside the walls one day every four weeks,” Sweyn said. “Father Rodriguez or one of the other
     
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    priests is always with us even then. And all you can spend is ten cents for candy.”
    “If you can’t spend any money, where do you go?” Tom asked.
    “Sometimes the priests take us on a nature-study hike or a picnic,” Sweyn said. “Sometimes we just go sight-seeing or to the museum or art gallery. And once in a while as a treat we get to go to the Salt Lake Theater. Buy-ing a ticket to get in is the only way you can spend any money.”
    “What about sports?” Tom asked.
    Sweyn was really enjoying the look of dismay