There had come a silverness in the sky over the next eastern mountain,
and he could see the better what he was doing. Now and again he stopped
cautiously and listened, his heart beating high with fear lest after
all the rich guy might arrive before he was ready for him. When the
obstruction was finished he got out a large piece of card board which
had been fastened to the handle bars of his wheel, and from a box also
fastened on behind his saddle he produced his can of paint and a brush.
The moon was beginning to show off at his right, and gave a faint
luminus gleam, as he daubed his letters in crudely.
"DETOUR to SABBATH VALLEY.
Rode flooded. Brige down."
His card was large, but so were his letters. Nevertheless in spite of
their irregularity he got them all on, and fastened the card firmly to
the most obvious spot in the barricade. Then with a wicked gleam of
mischief in his eye he looked off down the Highway across the ridge to
where some two miles away one Pat must be awaiting his coming, and gave
a single mocking gesture common to boys of his age. Springing on his
wheel he coasted down the humps and into the darkness again.
He reflected as he rode that no harm could possibly be done. The road
inspector would not be along for a couple of days. It would simply mean
that a number of cars would go around by the way of Sabbath Valley for
a day or so. It might break up a little of the quiet of the Sabbath day
at home, but Billy did not feel that that would permanently injure
Sabbath Valley for home purposes, and he felt sure that no one could
possibly ever detect his hand in the matter.
The road at the forks led four ways, Highway, coming from New York and
the Great North East, running North and South, and the Cross road
coming from Economy and running through Sabbath Valley to Monopoly. He
had made the Detour below the Cross Road, so that people coming from
Economy would find no hindrance to their progress. He felt great
satisfaction in the whole matter.
And now there remained but to do his part and get his money. He thought
he saw a way to make sure of that money, and his conscience had no
qualms for extracting it from so crooked a thief as Pat.
The clock on the church tower at Sabbath Valley was finishing the last
stroke of eleven when Billy came slickly up the slope of the road from
Sabbath Valley, and arrived on the station platform nonchalantly.