“Wait a minute! Wait a minute!” broke in Ned, unable longer to hear his friend thus abused. “The mistake will be on the other foot in a minute if you keep on that way!” he said indignantly.
The little man seemed about to rise from the table to attack Ned, but Jerry gently thrust back his impetuous chum.
“Let me handle him,” he whispered to Ned.
“Is he crazy?” asked Bob.
“It begins to look that way,” answered Jerry, as the little man resumed his seat at his table, though he did not continue his meal.
“We wish to apologize for having mistaken you for a friend of ours,” said Jerry suavely. “Seeing you from the back we took you to be Professor Snodgrass, and——”
“Is he a friend of yours?” asked the little man fiercely.
“He certainly is!” exclaimed Bob truculently.
“Well, all I have to say is that I am sorry for you,” said the little man. “You had no right to assume that I was he, and your effrontery in publicly addressing me as such needs to be apologized for.”
“Which we are doing,” said Jerry stiffly. “And I might add,” he went on, “that if you continue in your present strain there will be something else to apologize for, and not on our part, either!” He seemed quite a different Jerry now.