“But it’s not red—it’s yellow!”
“That’s the color of my blood, madam. I’ve had yellow fever. Do go ’way!”
“But it smells—it smells—— Why, it’s everywhere! It’s on the ground!”
“I’ve shed gallons of it already. I beg yo’ to leave me!”
“And those brutes are permitting you to bleed to death! What monsters!”
She began to grow hysterical. The language she applied to the professor made him wince. It also aroused his resentment. When she repeatedly called him a murderer he finally decided that the limit had been reached. Prancing over to her, he shrilly cried:
“Madam, you are needlessly wasting your sympathy on that little runt. He’s not seriously harmed, I assure you. We did fight a duel, and I am the victor; but we did not engage with deadly weapons, and Major Fitts is not dying.”
“Not dying? Did not use deadly weapons? Why—why, what did you use?”
“Eggs, madam—rotten eggs; and I am proud to say that I pasted him with them in a most scientific manner.”
“Eggs?” screamed Miss Ketchum, springing up and looking at her besmeared hands. “Rotten eggs? Then this is not his blood!”