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Good Boy – Little Lofan – Booby Traps – Someone who Likes Children
Now the man was gone and I was alone with the loony. Nerves immediately started turning my muscles into water. I looked fearfully at the loon now, regretting ever making the other man go away. I mean, even if the loony was blind, he was still downright insane and dangerous!
The loony looked at me for a second before he burst into tears and came running to give me a hug.
"Good boy! Good boy! You good boy!" he said patting my head like I was a darned dog. I was frozen with shock there. How could he run to where I was if he was blind?
"Why, ain't you blind?" I asked in astonishment.
"What mean this 'blind'?" he asked.
"I means yer can't see." I explained.
"What you saying, little Lofan, I see." The loony said. That was the moment I started doubting that he was actually from an asylum. I didn't quite know what he was, but he didn't seem so bad or dangerous.
"Hey mister, do you know where they find the gold?" I asked.
His face immediate fell with the world 'gold,' to my surprise. He started ranting. "Oh! Oh! "Gold! That shtupid Da-bi-zi Parkason take my claim! My claim!" He stared jumping in excitement and waving his hands in front of his face curled into fists. It though he was going to plumb hit me, or worse! I started hollering and ran away fast as I could back to Huck and the Parkerson brothers in town.
Huck looked might sorry when I saw him, as if he missed me. So I came up to him and gave him a scare. He took my playfulness to mean that I warn't mad at him no more so we made up and I tole him about the escaped loony, while the Parkersons arranged for a place for all of us to stay at. They asked for a considerable of money from us to pay for the inn room. I couldn't figure out if it was a cause the prices in California were higher than those in Missouri or if it was cause they were ripping off un us. Either way, I didn't care much. I was too busy worrying about the loony showing up any minute to get me.
Huck and I decided to put booby traps around the inn room we got to keep away the slanted eye madman. We swiped some lard from the kitchen and smeared it 'cross the wooden boards of the room right in front of the doorway. My marble's supplemented the slick ground so that no one could get passed on two feet 'cept me and Huck cause we knew where to step – where their warn't no lard or marbles. We worked on the windows next, by setting a book on the top of the frame so that it would fall and hit anyone who tried to open it on the head - or at least make a big enough noise to alarm Huck and me so that we could run across the floor on the special unslippery spots we knew off and get the hell outter there.
We had all the traps set up when Jeb called us down to meet the fourth Parkerson brother that had just come to visit. They'd a'told us bout Miles Parkerson being really fond of chillen so we expected that he'd want to meet us right away. But at that time, Huck and I had been taking apart a chair in the room so that we could use the legs as clubs against the runaway loony so we were too occupied to come down right away. I shouted that we would be down in a few but confounded Jebs had to tell his brother to come right up an' see us. A few minutes later Huck and I were jumping up in alarm with clubs in our hands as we heard a man shout as he slipped on our floor with a thud and came sliding towards the center of the room. Huck and I immediately jumped on the bed and ran to the windowsill. Huck lifted the window up as I batted away the falling book with the chair clubs with all my strength. It ended flying right towards the trespasser sliding around our floor and hit him straight on the forehead!
As he groaned with pain and rubbed his head, Huck and I leapt out of the window and grabbed onto a tree just outside the window. I stepped on Huck's head a great deal and gave him some trouble as we both climbed down the window messily. Then we heard shouting coming from atop of us and I looked up to see the man that had been with the loony shouting like hell at us! My mouth fell wide open and I reckon Miles recognized me cause his face grew even redder with choleric anger and he screamed at the top of his longs, "You! That Chink ran off with all my equipment because of you! All your damn "help me, Injuns are attacking my parents!" Get the hell back up here! I'm gonna kill yer!"
I looked at Huck as we ran madly from that place. He asked me incredulously, "That's someone who likes chillen?"
