When the boy left the store he found it was already noon. He had a lunch with him, and, strolling down to the water's edge, he sat on a little dock and ate it.
He had just about finished when a rowboat came into view. There was a single occupant at the oars. It was Percy Paget.
"Hallo, there! what are you doing here?" cried the young bully, as he ran up to the dock and leaped ashore.
"Taking it easy," returned Ralph, coolly.
"Indeed!" said Percy, sarcastically. "Plenty of time for that now, I suppose."
"Yes, I have more time on my hands than I care to have, Percy."
"Don't call me Percy! I am not an intimate of yours, Ralph Nelson!"
"All right; just as you please."
"If you had treated me like a gentleman on the bridge you wouldn't be out of a job now," went on the fashionable bully.
"We won't talk about that," returned Ralph, sharply.