Read The Great Brain Online

Authors: John D. Fitzgerald

Tags: #Social Issues, #Humorous Stories, #Reading, #Action & Adventure, #Juvenile Fiction, #Juvenile Nonfiction, #General, #Teaching Methods & Materials, #Education

The Great Brain (7 page)

BOOK: The Great Brain
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“I can only push the search party so far,” Uncle Mark said patiently. “We haven’t had a wink of sleep in two days. Just give us a few hours to get some rest and then we’ll continue the search.”

Tom walked up to Uncle Mark. He tapped his finger on his forehead. “My great brain has figured out a way to save Frank and Allan and Lady,” he said.

Mr. Jensen pushed Tom to one side. “Get that boy out of here,” he ordered Uncle Mark. ‘This is no time for kids and their kid games.”

“Don’t you dare shove that boy again.” Uncle Mark said. Then he looked at Tom. “If you have any idea how to rescue the Jensen boys, please tell me.”

“First we have to go to the Jensen place,” Tom said. “Then we have to stop at the meat market.”

“Of all the infernal nonsense,” Mr. Jensen said. “Marshal, get this boy out of here and get on with the search.”

“Look Mr. Jensen,” Uncle Mark said sharply, “I’m grabbing at straws and so should you by this time. Then he took off his holster and revolver and handed them to Don Huddle, the blacksmith. “I’m making you a deputy marshal, Don,” he said. “Stand guard and don’t let anybody go into that cave, and that goes for Mr. Jensen too.” Then he looked down at my brother. “Let’s go, Tom.”

“J.D. and Brownie have to come too,” Tom said.

I was thrilled and grateful to be included. Tom led the way to the Jensen home and around to Lady’s doghouse in the backyard.

“Lady is in heat,” Tom said. “I want Brownie to get inside her doghouse and smell that Lady is in heat.”

Brownie began to whimper as he entered the doghouse and smelled around in it.

Then Tom led the way to the Deseret Meat Market.

“We want a big piece of beef liver,” he told Mr. Thompson, the butcher.

Uncle Mark tried to pay for the meat. Mr. Thompson refused to take any money when told the liver was going to be used to try and rescue the Jensen brothers.

“It doesn’t make sense,” Mr. Thompson said, “but take it with my blessing.”

When we returned to the entrance chamber of the cave, Mr. Jensen was sitting on a rock, crying. Tom sat down on the ground. He rubbed the piece of liver on the soles of his toes and then handed the meat to Uncle Mark.

“Brownie has the scent of Lady being in heat,” he told Uncle Mark. “He will find Lady for us in the cave, and Frank and Allan will be with her. We will stop every once in a while and rub the liver on the soles of our shoes. This will give Brownie a scent to lead us back out of the cave.”

Uncle Mark grinned as he sat down and rubbed liver on the soles of his shoes. “The next time I need a Sherlock Holmes,” he said, “I’ll know where to go.”

Papa came into the cave as Uncle Mark was lighting a lantern. He looked at Tom and then at Uncle Mark. “What is going on here?” he asked.

“Tom has figured out a way to find the Jensen boys if they are alive,” Uncle Mark answered.

“You don’t think for a minute I’m going to let my son go into that cave without a search party, do you?” Papa demanded.

“We are depending on Lady being in heat to give Brownie the scent that will enable him to lead us to her,” Uncle Mark explained. “If I take a search party along, it will distract the dog. And I’ve got to take Tom with me so Brownie will have somebody he knows and trusts along.”

“Don’t worry, Papa,” Tom said confidently. “We’ll be back in two shakes of a lamb’s tail with Frank and Allan and Lady.”

“If anything happens to you, son,” Papa said — and I knew how concerned he must be when he called Tom son — “I’ll never forgive myself.”

“Nothing is going to happen to me,” Tom said. “Can we go now please?”

“Are you afraid?” Papa asked.

“Heck, no,” Tom said as if becoming impatient with Papa.

Papa looked at Uncle Mark. “I know you wouldn’t do this if you didn’t think it safe,” he said.

“I can’t deny there is some risk,” Uncle Mark said, “but we’ve got to think of those boys in there.”

Papa knelt in the dirt and embraced Tom. “Good luck, son,” he said and his voice was husky.

I wasn’t the least bit scared. Maybe it was my confidence in my brother’s great brain. Maybe it was my confidence in my dog. I felt no fear at all as I watched Uncle Mark enter the passageway to the cave. In one hand he held a rope leash which he had attached to Brownie and in the other he carried a lighted lantern. Tom followed carrying the piece of liver wrapped in the brown paper they lead gotten from the meat market.

They had been gone about fifteen minutes when Mrs. Jensen and Mamma came into the entrance chamber of the cave. Mrs. Jensen walked over to where her husband was still sitting on a rock.

“What were the marshal and Tena’s two boys doing around Lady’s doghouse?” she asked.

Mr. Jensen looked up at his wife. “The marshal thinks the Fitzgerald boy’s dog might find Lady from her scent in the cave,” he said. “There is still hope, my dear.”

Mamma just stood there staring at Papa but saying nothing.

“I had to let the boy try it,” Papa finally said. “Mark said it was the only way.”

Mamma still said nothing as she walked over and put her hand in Papa’s.”

Just then Sweyn came running into the cave’s chamber. He looked at Papa and Mamma and then sat down on the chamber floor beside me.

“What’s going on?” he whispered.”

I told him.

Sweyn shook his head when I finished. “Old T.D. sure has courage,” he said. “I wouldn’t venture into that cave for anything.”

“I would have gone with them if Uncle Mark had asked me,” I said.

“Like fun you would,” Sweyn said loudly. “They say there are monsters and big snakes in the cave.”

“That will be enough of that,” Papa said sternly as Mamma made the sign of the cross.

Don Huddle, who was standing guard over the entrance chamber of the cave, let Mrs. Olsen and Mrs. Winters enter. They were Mrs. Jensen’s next-door neighbors. They were carrying a big wicker basket between them. They set the basket down in the middle of the chamber and removed a tablecloth from it. The basket was filled with sandwiches, glasses, and two big jugs of milk.

I knew the way Papa and Mamma were feeling at that moment they would have rather had a cup of coffee than anything. But Mr. Olsen and Mrs. Winters were Mormons and the Mormons never drank coffee because it was against their religion, just as they never drank tea or any kind of alcoholic beverages or ever smoked any kind of tobacco. All the grown-ups in the chamber except Mr. and Mrs. Jensen accepted a sandwich and a glass of milk from the two ladies. Then Mrs. Winters finally coaxed them into having a sandwich and a glass of milk.

All the adults had been served and it was now time for Sweyn and me to dive into the basket and gorge ourselves on ham and roast chicken and roast beef sandwiches and then top it off with a glass of milk.

After we had eaten our fill, time began moving so slowly that it seemed as if the whole world had come to a halt. I asked Papa the time so many times that he threatened to send me home if I asked him again. But after three hours had passed, Papa himself began looking at his watch every few minutes. He became so nervous that Mamma got suspicious.

“Is there anything you haven’t told me?” she asked.

“Mark did say there was some risk,” Papa admitted.

I thought at first Mamma would start crying, but she didn’t. She put her hand in Papa’s and stood straight and brave.

Another hour passed very slowly. Mrs. Jensen began crying as her husband held her in his arms, trying to comfort her. Mamma stood staring at the entrance to the passageway. Papa paced nervously back and forth.

Then Don Huddle left his guard post at the entrance to the cave and walked over to Papa. “We will give them another hour, Fitz,” he said, “and if they don’t come back by then, we’ll send a search party in for them.”

Sweyn shook his head as he whispered to me, “Maybe old T.D. is a goner.”

I thought I heard a dog bark. Then I was sure of it. I jumped to my feet.

“That’s Brownie!” I shouted.

We all ran to the entrance to the passageway. I could now hear both Brownie and Lady barking. Then I saw a flicker of light down the passageway.

Sweyn slapped me on the shoulder. “Old T.D. and his great brain did it!” he shouted.

“T.D. my eye,” I said, feeling left out of the glory. “What good would his great brain have been without my dog?”

Mrs. Jensen clasped her hands in prayer. “Please, God,” she prayed, “let my sons be with them.”

Then we heard Uncle Mark shout, “All safe and sound! I’m going to release the dogs now. They are tearing my arm off.”

Brownie and Lady came running into the chamber a moment later. Brownie ran over to me. I knelt and put my arms around him as he licked my face and barked happily. Then he broke away from me. He barked at Lady. They ran out of the cave together. The sight of the two dogs coming out of the cave brought a cheer from the waiting crowd outside.

Inside the chamber everything was just about as mushy as it could get as Uncle Mark, Tom, Frank, and Allan came out of the passageway. Nobody waited for Uncle Mark to untie the rope around their waists. Frank and Allan kept blinking their eyes as their mother and father hugged and kissed them. I guess the light hurt their eyes after being in darkness so long. Papa and Mamma were fussing over Tom as if he’d just returned from a long sea voyage. Sweyn was running around patting everybody on the back as if he were responsible for the rescue. Uncle Mark and. Don Huddle were slapping each other on the shoulders and laughing loudly. The rest of the people in the chamber were hugging each other, shaking hands, pounding each other on the back, and carrying on like you never saw. My dog had made the rescue possible, and nobody was paying any attention to me.

Tom no sooner got the rope off his waist than Mr. Jensen picked him up and put my brother on his shoulder. He carried Tom out of the chamber with the rest of us following. The crowd outside began to applaud and cheer as they saw Mr. Jensen and Tom and Frank and Allan. Several men got so excited they began shooting their revolvers in the air. Mr. Jensen held up one hand for silence. The crowd became quiet immediately.

“My sons owe their lives to this brave boy on my shoulder!” Mr. Jensen shouted.

The crowd went wild then, whistling, shouting, applauding as if Tom were some kind of a king.

Then Uncle Mark held up his hands for silence. “The Jensen boys are exhausted and very hungry,” he shouted. “I could use some rest myself. Please make way for us and let us go home.”

The crowd made a pathway as Mr. Jensen put Tom down. They kept cheering and reaching out to pat my brother on the shoulder as we walked down Cedar Ridge with Mamma and Papa. They even followed us home and stood in the street in front of our house.

I followed Papa, Mamma, Sweyn, and Tom into our parlor. Tom walked to the big bay window and looked out at the crowd in the street.

“I guess I’ll have to speak to them,” he said.

Papa winked at Mamma. “I think that would be a good idea, T.D.,” he said.

I started to follow Tom out to the front porch to share in the bows because it was my dog.

“Let him go alone, J.D.,” Papa said. “This is his day.”

Far be it from me to be jealous, but this was getting to be sickening. Everybody was hailing my brother as a hero when my dog was the real hero. My dog couldn’t take any bows, but as his owner I could have taken a few for him.

The crowd gave a mighty cheer as Tom appeared on the front porch. My brother held up his hands for silence. The crowd obeyed him.

“When I learned that Uncle Mark and the search party were about ready to give up the search as hopeless,” he said, with about as much modesty as a plucked chicken hanging in the window of the Deseret Meat Market, “I knew the only way to save Frank and Allan and Lady was to put my great brain to work. I would have done it sooner but I wanted to give the grown-ups every chance. When they failed, I knew it

was up to me to save the day. And now, folks, please go home. I’ve got to rest up my great brain so it will be ready the next time something happens which you grown-ups can’t solve.”

I expected the crowd of grown men and women to throw rotten eggs at Tom after the way he had insulted them. Instead they cheered and applauded.

Papa looked at Mamma and smiled. “What a modest son we have,” he said.

“You can’t deny,” Mamma said “that his great brain did make fools out of Mark and the rest of the men in this tow.”

“What about my dog?” I asked, feeling completely left out.

Papa and Mamma had no ears for me as their conquering hero came back into the parlor. They fussed over him right up until it was time for us boys to go to bed that night. I only had a little brain but it only took a little brain to figure it all out. If I hadn’t been playing with Brownie and making my dog bark when Tom was up in his loft, The Great Brain might never have got the idea of using my dog for the rescue.

One other thing bothered me. I asked Tom about it as we were getting undressed for bed that night.

“What did you mean when you said it would cost you a fortune if Frank and Allan and Lady were not found alive?” I asked.

Tom held his undershirt half over his head and peered out of it like a photographer taking a picture.

“It’s a business deal I made with them,” he answered.

“What kind of a deal?” I asked because I was curious.

Tom whipped off his undershirt. “That is none of your business,” he said.

The only business deal I knew about with Frank and Allan was that I would get the pick of the litter from Brownie and Lady’s pups, I couldn’t help feeling before I fell asleep that somehow and in some way I was going to end up with the short end of the deal. And, oh, how I wished I had a great brain like my brother’s so I could figure it out.

CHAPTER FOUR

Abie Glassman Finds a Home

ABIE GLASSMAN AND HIS peddler’s wagon arrived in Adenville just a few days after The Great Brain had saved the day. Abie traveled all over southwestern Utah with his peddler’s wagon, selling merchandise to ranchers, farmers, and people living in small towns. Everybody, including children, called him Abie, because ‘he was that type of a man — friendly, kind, and gentle.

BOOK: The Great Brain
5.82Mb size Format: txt, pdf, ePub
ads

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