“If I could reach you, I’d give you a tip—out of your chair,” he said.
Frank Merriwell called some of the party around him, drawing back from the table, and proceeded to unfold a scheme to them. They received it with approval. When Ready did not seem to notice, two or three of them slipped into another room, closing the door tightly behind them.
Bruce Browning came over and offered Jack his hand. “Ready,” grunted the big fellow, “you’re all right! I believe you have plenty of nerve.”
“Thanks,” said Jack. “So have you.”
“Why?”
“You have nerve to offer to shake hands with me.”
“All right,” grinned Browning. “You don’t have to shake hands.”
“Thanks,” said Ready, again. “I won’t.”
“I do not call it nerve at all,” said Phil Porter. “He has had no fair test of his nerve.”
“Then I don’t care for the test,” said Ready. “I am satisfied to let it drop where it is.”