"Hold on, sir!" cried Jack. "What is all this about?"
Mr. Mole stopped beating the man, who instantly ran away.
"I can't stand it, Jack," said Mr. Mole. "I'm an old man and my nerves are weak."
"What has occurred to ruffle your feathers?"
"I have only been half a day in San Francisco, and this man whom I was chastising asked me, for the twentieth time, how I liked the climate and what I thought of the seals."
"Ha, ha!" laughed Jack.
"It may be very funny, but there is a limit to human endurance," replied the professor, shaking his head, dismally.
"Oh! it's nothing when you get used to it," Jack said.
Mr. Mole retired to his room, evidently laboring under the impression that he had been badly used, and Harkaway went out with Harvey to promenade on Montgomery Street.