"Down on the roof, I suppose you mean," he said.
The next proceedings were mysterious. Flannigan rolled the barrel into
the tent, and carried in a small glass lamp. With the material at hand
he seemed to be effecting a combination, no new one, to judge by his
facility. Then he called Jim.
At the door of the tent Jim turned to me, his bathrobe toga fashion
around his shoulders.
"This is a very essential part of the treatment," he said solemnly. "The
exercise, according to Flannigan, loosens up the adipose tissue. The
next step is to boil it out. I hope, unless your instructions compel
you, that you will at least have the decency to stay out of the tent."
"I am going at once," I said, outraged. "I'm not here because I'm mad
about it, and you know it. And don't pose with that bath robe. If you
think you're a character out of Roman history, look at your legs."
"I didn't mean to offend you," he said sulkily. "Only I'm tired of
having you choked down my throat every time I open my mouth, Kit. And
don't go just yet. Flannigan is going for my clothes as soon as he
lights the--the lamp, and--somebody ought to watch the stairs."
That was all there was to it. I said I would guard the steps, and
Flannigan, having ignited the combination, whatever it was, went
downstairs. How was I to know that Bella would come up when she did? Was
it my fault that the lamp got too high, and that Flannigan couldn't
hear Jim calling? Or that just as Bella reached the top of the steps
Jim should come to the door of the tent, wearing the barrel part of his
hot-air cabinet, and yelling for a doctor?
Bella came to a dead stop on the upper step, with her mouth open. She
looked at Jim, at the inadequate barrel, and from them she looked at me.
Then she began to laugh, one of her hysterical giggles, and she turned
and went down again. As Jim and I stared at each other we could hear her
gurgling down the hall below.
She had violent hysterics for an hour, with Anne rubbing her forehead
and Aunt Selina burning a feather out of the feather duster under her
nose. Only Jim and I understood, and we did not tell. Luckily, the next
thing that occurred drove Bella and her nerves from everybody's mind.
At seven o'clock, when Bella had dropped asleep and everybody else was
dressed for dinner, Aunt Selina discovered that the house was cold, and
ordered Dal to the furnace.
It was Dal's day at the furnace; Flannigan had been relieved of that
part of the work after twice setting fire to a chimney.