esty was laughing too hard to save anybody.

Right there in front of us in a little room, there was a man in his
shirt sleeves sitting on the side of a kind of a sleeping bunk. Sitting
on one of his knees was one of those big funny-looking dolls with a
black face and a big, square mouth that works by a hinge. The doll was
straddling the man's knee and one of its legs was dangling down on
either side.

"What's the big idea?" the man said.

Both of the other men were laughing so hard, they couldn't speak, but
one of them pointed at Pee-wee. Our young hero just stood there,
panting, all out of breath, and gaping like an idiot.

"I--I--eh--I didn't know you were a ven--a ven-----" he blurted out. "I
thought you were murdering somebody--I--I did."

The man just looked at him and smiled; then he began to laugh. He said,
"I consider that a compliment, my young friend; you're welcome. Sam,
tell the young gentleman he is welcome."

The big fancy doll said, "You're welcome." And, gee whiz, it sounded
just as if it came out of his own throat. Pee-wee just stood there
staring at Sam, and Sam sat there on the ventriloquist's lap, staring
very bold at Pee-wee.

"Tell the young gentleman we were having a rehearsal," the man said; and
Sam said, "We were having a rehearsal."

Pee-wee just stood there not saying a word, and gaping at Sam and at the
man. All of a sudden we heard a cat meowing right near.

"Look out, you're stepping on the cat," the man said to Pee-wee. Pee-wee
moved his feet as if he were in a trance and looked down.

But there wasn't any cat at all.

Gee, that man was a wonder.

CHAPTER XXXIV

THE TRAIN

That man's name was Pedro De Vail, and he was French, only he was born
in Hoboken. He was the greatest ventriloquist in the whole world. He
said so, and gee whiz, he ought to know. Westy said that when he said
anything, it counted for a whole lot, because he could say it in half a
dozen different voices. But, oh, boy, Pee-wee lost his voice entirely.
Anyway, Mr. Pedro said it didn't make any difference, because he had a
lot of voices to spare. I guess he kind of liked Pee-wee.

As long as we were there we made him a call, and I guess he'd be pretty
good at stalking, because he could imitate all the animals and birds,
and he could make you think he was sawing wood. He said that the place
where we were was the Fair Grounds, and that the next day the Firemen's
Carnival was going to start there. He