“Now, Burr, are you coming?” shouted Mercer.
“Yes. Good morning,” I said to Lomax, and I hurried out.
“I thought we should have learned long before this,” said my companion, as we strolled leisurely back. “I don’t seem to get on a bit further, and I certainly don’t feel as if I could fight. Do you?”
“No,” I said frankly.
“You see, it wants testing or proving, same as you do a sum. Shall we have a fall out with them and try?”
“No,” I cried excitedly. “That wouldn’t do. They might lick us. We ought to try with some one else first.”
“But who is there? If we had a fight with some other boys, Eely and Dicksee would know, and we should have no chance to fight them then. I know. Let you and I fall out and have a set to.”
I whistled, and put my hands in my pockets.
“Wouldn’t that do?” he said.
“No, not at all. It wouldn’t be real, and—”