“Botheration! we are sold!” Charles exclaimed, in surprise and mortification.
“Yes; you fooled me, and I fooled you all. We’re even now.”
Steve winced when the Sage again made reference to the learned ventriloquist’s weighty observation, and demanded indignantly, “Why didn’t you tell us all that before? Why didn’t you ventriloquism as we came along?”
“I was only waiting; I intended to do it before night,” George said honestly.
“You read too much, George;” Will commented sorrowfully. “We won’t try to fool you any more.”
“The worst of it is,” Charles said, with a droll smile, “is that one of us can’t make fun of another, for we all made fools of ourselves.”
“There’s Jim,” Steve suggested.
“So there is! Well, what about the murder?”
“It certainly is a skeleton,” Marmaduke said grimly.
“Well, to please you, let us call it an ‘open question,’” George, who was now in jubilant spirits, observed.