"John D. Fitzgerald - The Great Brain ReformsUC - 5" - читать интересную книгу автора (Fitzgerald John D)

"Thanks, Papa," Frankie said.

We played checkers until bedtime. When we went
up to our bedroom, Frankie took the jackknife from his
pocket and handed it to me.

"I'm sorry I took it," he said. "I didn't know what a
blackmailer was until Papa told me. But Tom must know
and that makes him, the most lowdown crook there is."

"Tom has been blackmailing me since I can remem-
ber," I said. "But it doesn't bother him a bit. He doesn't
consider it blackmail. He says he is just using his great
brain to outsmart people."

, "Then maybe you're right," Frankie said, "and Tom
isn't a Christian after all. When he came home for the
Christmas vacation, I liked him a lot. I even liked him
more than I did you. But now I don't think I like him any-
more. But I love you, John."

I'm not a fellow for getting mushy but I couldn't help
hugging'him. But for all Tom's faults, he was my brother.

' "You must not only like Tom," I said, "but also love
him because no matter what he does, he is your foster
brother."

"I'll try," Frankie said, "but I wish he was more like
you."

And somehow that made the loss of my basketball
and backstop and ten cents a week a little easier to bear.

IS

CHAPTER TWO

The Tin Can Swindle

THE NEXT MORNING Tom went up to his loft
in the barn. Papa and Mr. Jamison, the carpenter, had
built the loft by nailing boards across the .beam rafters at
one end of the barn. They had also built a wall ladder to
get up to the loft. It was originally intended for Sweyri,
Tom, and me. But The Great Brain, in his usual style, had
taken sole possession of it. He had removed the, -wooden
wall ladder and made a rope ladder instead. That way he
could climb up and pull the rope ladder after him, so no-
body else could get up to the loft. He had an accumula-