"Jack certainly deserves great credit for jumping in after you," said Pepper, warmly. "It was a mighty cold plunge for anybody to take."
"Oh, let's drop it!" came modestly from the hero of the occasion.
"I am not going to drop it!" retorted Gus Coulter, with spirit. "You saved my life, and I want everybody to know it, especially Reff Ritter. He would have left me to drown!"
"Reff had to save himself. He was chilled to the bone when we got him out," answered Jack.
"If you had been Reff you wouldn't have run away and left me to drown," went on Coulter, stubbornly.
At this Jack was silent.
"You don't know it all, Jack Ruddy. Reff and I had a quarrel. He said he—he didn't want to have anything more to do with me. I believe he—he would have been glad to have me drown!"
"Oh, don't say that, Gus!" burst out Pepper.
"But I will say it!" flared out Gus Coulter. "After this I am going to cut Reff Ritter! And I am going to tell what I know about him, too! And I am going to get Nick Paxton to tell what he knows, too!"
"What do you know about him?" asked Jack, with sudden interest.