Tom rubbed his leg.
“Pinched me!” he said, in a suppressed voice. “What did you do that for?”
Dave noticed the threat in Tom’s voice.
“I thought I heard a noise in the bush,” he explained.
“You thought you heard a nise!” repeated Tom, with great scorn. “I thought you wuz asleep!”
“So I was; but I woke up. Don’t you hit me, Tom Pagdin, or I’ll swim back and go home.”
“Hit you!” replied Tom; “I ain’t going to hit you. I wouldn’t be bothered hittin’ you. If you don’t know no better than to act the goat wakin’ your mate up in the middle of the night with a monkey trick like that, I got nothin’ to say.”
“Well,” said Dave, apologetically, “I thought it wuz the best way to. I did hear a nise.”
“There wasn’t no nise,” replied Tom, “an’ if there had a been, you went the right way to put the whole thing away.”
Dave said nothing.