“What!” yelled Sam. “It wasn’t the racquet that was broken, it was my nose!”
Tommy and Margery, after having escaped from the net, had sat down heavily. Sam still sat where Tommy’s racquet had laid him low, nursing his injured nose and rocking his body to and fro.
The campers screamed with laughter. He presented such a ludicrous figure that they could not help laughing. Even Miss Elting could not hide her amusement.
“That’s right. Laugh if you want to. I’d laugh myself if I weren’t afraid of ruining my nose forever. They deserve to be laughed at,” he declared angrily.
“We aren’t laughing at Tommy and Margery, we are laughing at you,” cried Crazy Jane.
Harriet, in the meantime, had brought a basin of water and, kneeling down, was washing the blood from Sam’s damaged nasal organ. As she wiped away the blood she observed that his nose was leaning slightly to one side. Dill, who had been an interested spectator, had observed the same thing.
“Out of plumb, isn’t it?” he questioned quizzically.
“It’s broken. Didn’t I tell you it was?” groaned Sam. “I may not know everything, but I know my own nose and I know when it’s broken.”
The guardian stepped over to where Sam and Harriet were sitting. She examined Sam’s nose carefully.
“If you twitht it a little you can tell whether it ith broken or not,” suggested Tommy.