Evidently Maj. Duncan expected some acknowledgment of his compliment from Al, for after a moment's silence he added:
"I repeat, I refer to the young gentleman yonder, Mr. Allen Allston."
"Get up and bow," whispered the manager, in our hero's ear.
Scarcely knowing what he was doing, Al obeyed.
The entire audience applauded, although there were not three persons among them who knew why they did it.
"Will the young gentleman kindly step upon the stage?" went on the major.
Without speaking, Mr. Wattles seized the boy by the arm, and fairly dragged him through a narrow door in the rear of the box.
"This is the easiest way of getting on the stage," he said. "I wonder what they have got on foot. They ought to have told us. In a case like this it is always the proper caper to have a witty impromptu speech ready, and they ought to have given you a chance to prepare one at your leisure—they really ought. But this is not New York. Now, then, my boy, step out on the stage. Don't you hear them shouting for you?"
But Al held back.
"I don't understand all this," he said. "What do they want with me?"