“Do you make no exceptions to rule?”
“No.”
“But certainly yes. You have taking in a boarder the day or two before.”
“L-l-listen here, mister,” says Mark, “we’re not takin’ boarders now nor yesterday. We are four boys on a fishin’ trip. Mr. Ames lent us this hotel. We ain’t l-lookin’ for any company. There you have the facts.”
“But you give board to Japanese boy. Eh? Not? To be sure. To bad leetle Japanese boy that runned off away. You meet him in woods and he say, ‘Give me eatings and sleepings.’ So you give to him. Also he stays yet continuously near by in room of seclusion out of view.”
“Say that all over,” says Mark. “I guess I d-don’t quite get all of it the first bite.”
“Japanese boy come. Telling story about naughty lying. Smaller Japanese boy than you are little. You see him? To be surely certain. He is running off away from fathers and mothers and uncles and relatives. See me. Looking at me closely. Have I not the look of an uncle? You see it. An uncle. Small Japanese boy has father who sends me to bringing him to return. That is all. Spankings shall be for Japanese boy, but not nothing more. Eh? He is now up over the stairs? Yes. Shall I climbing up-stairs for after him?”
“Mister,” says Mark, “what are you t-talkin’ about? You scramble your talk all up so nobody can understand what you’re gettin’ at.”
“Is little Japanese boy here?”
Mark got up and looked all around, and then looked at The Man Who Will Come, sort of puzzled.