“He fell in, that’s all,” finished Ned. “You’re all right, Pete.”
Bill reached shore and he and Noddy slunk away.
“Well, we’re well rid of them,” observed Jerry. “I’m glad we didn’t get to fighting, though I wouldn’t run away from it if it had to be. Pete did us a good turn.”
“I’m always on hand to beat the band,” put in the odd character. “To be with you boys fills me with joys. That ain’t a very good rhyme, but I’ve been making a lot of ’em to-day, and I’m kind ’a tired,” he added.
“I guess you’d better go home and go to bed, Pete,” advised Bob. “It will do you good.”
“Just as you say, I’m on my way,” replied the old man solemnly, as he turned to go.
“Did anything strike you as peculiar?” asked Jerry of his chums.
“How do you mean?” asked Ned.
“I mean the way Bill Berry acted,” replied Jerry. “He seemed to fear we had discovered something. Then there was his remark about something blue.”