“If you have anything you wish to see me about, come to the point. If you haven’t, get out. You make my headache worse.”
“My! my! how touchy you are!” murmured Jack. “You need some spring bitters.”
“You’re an ass!” snapped Bart.
“Thanks!” smiled Jack. “So am I. There are lots of us to keep you company. Where did you fight?”
“Will you go?”
“By me soul!” cried Ready; “I have a suspicion that you did not fight at all! You have shut yourself in your room to avoid meeting him. You are afraid of him, Hodge.”
But even this did not lead Bart to assert that the fight had taken place.
“It is insinuated around the campus,” lied Ready, “that Mason thrashed you. Will you give me authority, as a particular friend, to contradict the report?”
“I will give you authority to mind your own business.”