“What?” cried Jack, in dismay. “Wouldst even rob me of the only original thought I ever possessed? Alas!”
“He is very queer,” said Felicia to Dick.
“Very!” said Dick, frowning. “I saw a crazy man once that acted like him.”
Which Jack would not have regarded as very complimentary had he heard it.
Merry introduced Ready to Juan Delores, and then said:
“Ready, this is my little cousin Felicia, and this is my brother Dick.”
“Queen Felicia, I salute you,” said Jack, bowing low, his hat in his left hand and his right hand pressed over his heart. “Before I came, you must have been the sweetest thing in all this wild region. Of course I can’t help being sweet myself, for I was born that way, and you must not blame me if all the flies flock my way.”
Then he turned and looked at Dick.
“So you are Frank Merriwell’s brother!” he exclaimed. “Well, my boy, I want to tell you that there are a few million chaps like you who would just about give their blooming lives to be able to honestly call Frank Merriwell brother. They’d rather have him for a brother than to have the President of the United States for a father. You are a dead lucky chap, and that’s straight goods.”
The lips of the boy were pressed together for a moment, and then he retorted: