“No, sir,” said the upright young man. “I never did anything of this kind before to-day, and I’m going to stop now.”
“I wish I had your strength of character,” said the owner of the wheel, who seemed to be a very straightforward sort of person, even if he was limited in his phraseology. I recalled that he had said exactly the same words to the same young man when he had won the fifty dollars in the morning, and had signified his intention of stopping for good.
“Hello, there’s Cherry, now,” said Sibthorp, and looking up I saw her going by in company with Tom and his wife. Sibthorp joined the trio and he and Cherry fell behind and a minute later I saw them stop at the gate of the merry-go-round. For, of course, a modern country fair would not be the real thing if it did not have one of the gaudily grotesque nerve rackers.
Wishing the boy luck, I wandered off alone and soon fell in with Hepburn.
“Hello, Mr. Vernon,” said he. “Have you seen anything of Miss Paxton?”
“Yes, she and Sibthorp went off together not a minute ago.”
“Oh, that’s all right then. I was afraid she had gone off with Billy.”
The young men had one evening drunk “Bruderschaft” and all called each other by their first names.
“Why are you afraid of Billy?” said I.
Hepburn colored, an unusual thing for him to do, as he generally had easy command of himself. He looked me straight in the eye and then he said,