And "Napoleon" meekly obeyed.
CHAPTER XX
SUSPICION
To paint the emotions that chased themselves over the features of the four boys would have taxed the ability of an artist. For a moment no one of them cared to look into the eyes of the others.
Tom was the first to act. He grabbed his cap in his hands, kneaded it into a ball, threw it on the ground and jumped up and down on it.
The others looked at his scowling face and the sight was too much for them. They threw themselves on the ground in convulsions of laughter. They howled. They roared. They rolled over and over, until Tom himself caught the contagion and joined in with the rest. It was a long time before any one of them was able to speak.
"Stung!" choked Bart, while tears of merriment rolled down his cheeks.
"Forward! March!" gurgled Billy. "Pound me on the back, you fellows, or
I'll have a fit."
"A grocer! Napoleon!" roared Frank. "Shades of Austerlitz and Waterloo!"
"And we fell for it!" yelled Tom. "Think of it, fellows! By the great horn spoon! We fell for it!"