"It begins to look as if your friend the detective could manage to take care of himself by hook or by crook. I can't see that either you or Bill Dean is bound by any such a transaction, unless you gave Sam permission to borrow money on your account."
"Of course we wasn't such fools as to do that! It's a reg'lar swindle, that's what it is, an' if I'd known 'bout it when Dan and me met him down-town, I'm 'fraid I'd punched his head, even if it would be fightin' on the street!"
"What's that?" Mr. Davis asked sharply. "Something been going on that we haven't heard?"
"I counted on tellin' you; but it seems as if there's always a bother to talk 'bout, so I waited a spell."
Then Seth gave a detailed account of the encounter with the would-be detective, and when he had concluded the recital 'Lish Davis looked around at his companions as if waiting to hear their comments before he expressed an opinion.
"You ought'er lit right out on him," Jerry Walters cried warmly. "He thinks you won't fight, an' will keep on makin' trouble for you till he learns that it ain't safe."
"Don't listen to such advice, Seth," the captain added quickly. "You did perfectly right, and are to be praised for it, more particularly since the temptation must have been very great."
Then the men began what finally grew into a heated discussion, as to how the boy should have acted under such provoking circumstances, and not until it was brought to a close did 'Lish Davis give his opinion.
"I'm allowing that you can't afford to raise a brawl, Amateur," he said, deliberately. "If that imitation detective 'mounted to anything the case might be different, and though I'm free to say that every man or boy should defend himself when it's necessary, there's no wisdom in raising a disturbance while it's possible to walk on. The trouble is that too many of us are apt to think we can't get away from what appears to be a bad scrape without coming to blows; but in nine cases out of ten that isn't the truth."
"But what am I to do 'bout this money he borrowed from Joe Carter?" Seth asked as the driver ceased speaking.