"I am sufficiently armed for any event. It all depends upon your courage," with a veiled insolence calculated to make any man commit any kind of folly.
"It is not a question of courage," replied O'Mally; "it's prudence."
"Prudence in an Irishman?" more insolent than ever.
"Oh, if you take that tone," said O'Mally, coloring, "why, the thing is done. Henceforth I am your major-domo. No one can call me a coward."
"O'Mally!"
"That's all right, Worth," said O'Mally. "I wouldn't turn back now for sixty-seven jails. You need not join."
"I shan't desert you in a strait like this," remarked Worth quietly. "Only, I think La Signorina rather cruel to force such a situation upon us, when it was entirely unnecessary. Put me against the correspondence."
"If I wasn't flat broke," said Smith, "I'd bow out politely. But where the grub-stake goes I must go. But I don't like this business a little bit. Signorina, do tell us that it's a joke."
"Yes," cried Kitty, still in doubt.
"I repeat, I am perfectly serious."