“Cut short!” snorted Herb, in frank disbelief. “How many did you eat?”
“Only seven,” returned Jimmy, unabashed. “I’m usually good for ten.”
“What’s making your pockets bulge so?” asked Joe suspiciously.
“Those are the other three doughnuts,” explained Jimmy placidly, as he took one out and began to munch on it. “I’ve got to keep up my strength, you know.”
“Well, here’s where you grow weaker,” declared Joe, as he made a dive for Jimmy’s pocket and snatched out one of the remaining doughnuts and began to devour it.
Jimmy made a wild dive for it, which gave Herb a chance to pull the last one from his pocket, a chance of which he availed himself with neatness and dispatch.
They dodged about the room while Jimmy tried in vain to regain his treasures, which, however, soon vanished to the last crumb.
“This joint ought to be pinched,” Jimmy said, in pronounced disgust, when all hope had gone. “I didn’t think that I was coming into a nest of crooks.”
“Never mind, Jimmy,” Bob laughed. “There’s a delicious apple pie in the pantry that mother has laid aside for us, and I’ll see that your slice is twice as big as those of these two highbinders.”
Jimmy brightened up visibly at this, and further hostilities were averted.