"Let that kid alone!"
"Eh?" Anthony said amazedly.
Johnson Boller leaned forward quickly.
"Stop right there, Anthony!" he hissed. "Don't answer him!"
"Why on earth shouldn't I answer him?" Anthony snapped.
"You keep out of it, young feller!" the red-faced one told Johnson Boller, and one saw that his honest rage was rising fast. "He's gotter let that kid alone!"
"Well, confound your impudence, sir!" Anthony began. "I——"
"None o' that stuff!" the total stranger said hotly. "You cut out picking on the kid or I'll step on your face."
And here his redder-faced companion leaned forward and demanded thickly:
"Woddy do ter kid, Joe? Huh? Wozzer matter—huh? Wozzer trouble 'th you—huh?"