“For the love of Pete, somebody stop him,” cried Fred. “He’s getting black in the face. You’d think he was a barker for the circus.”
But Billy was not to be stopped altogether, though the current of his eloquence was changed by a thought that had come to him while he was talking.
“Say, fellows!” he exclaimed eagerly, “what I said about the Russians reminded me of a joke!”
“What have we done that we should be punished like this!” moaned Shiner.
“Men have been killed for less crimes than Billy’s,” asserted Mouser.
“But this is a good one,” Billy declared. “It made me laugh when I heard it, and I know a good joke when I hear one.”
“I don’t believe it,” said Sparrow. “If you’ve ever heard a good one you’ve never passed it on to us.”
“Billy’s jokes are so poor that they wear rags,” proclaimed Howell.
“Or so old that they’ve got false teeth,” added Fred.
But Billy, undaunted by the general chorus, persisted.