"No, you didn't say it," returned Chester significantly.
"Then don't cry until you're hurt," enjoined Stubbs. "At the same time there is another reason that tells me to let you go at this thing in your own way."
"And that, Mr. Stubbs?" asked Hal.
"That," returned Stubbs, "is because every time I get mixed up with you fellows I get in trouble. Either I'm moving forward a couple of leaps ahead of a bayonet, or I'm all snarled up in a knot of struggling Germans; and I don't like that, I tell you. I'm a peaceable man."
Hal and Chester laughed.
"Oh, yes, we know how peaceable you are," said Hal. "We're perfectly willing to bank on your courage, Mr. Stubbs."
"Well, I'm not exactly willing to bank on it myself," replied Stubbs grumblingly, but he was plainly pleased.
"Whatever you think best, Mr. Stubbs," said Chester.
"Surely, Chester," said Stubbs, "you didn't take me seriously? Surely you knew that I am willing to do whatever I can to further the cause of America and her allies. I was simply joking."
"Maybe you were," returned Chester, not at all convinced, "but all I've got to say is that you have a mighty poor way of showing it."