"Oh, Tip, what an idiot you are to think you can deny your identity to us," jeered Noll, while Hal laughed merrily.
"Say, if you're trying to have sport with me," snarled Tip, "I'll——"
"Is it your idea of sport to shy rocks at us?" demanded Private Hal.
"I didn't shy anything at you," asserted Tip sullenly.
"Why, for that matter," Hal went on jeeringly, "I don't suppose you'll even admit that you're here, at all?"
"Don't get too festive, just because you've got the government's blue clothes on," Tip retorted sullenly. "A plain, ordinary soldier ain't such a much."
"Opinions may differ about that, of course," Hal admitted. "But being a soldier was too much of a job for you to get a chance at, wasn't it, Tip?"
"I'm just as well suited as it is," rejoined Tip, flushing a bit, none the less.
"You haven't told us what you're doing out in this country," Noll suggested.