"Oh, might I?"
"You might!"
The feelings of the Spider waxing beyond mere words, he looked at the speaker, viewed him up and down with a glance of contemptuous hostility, whereat Ravenslee's whole expression melted into one of lamblike meekness.
"Say," quoth the Spider at last, "there's only one thing as I can't stand about you, an' that's—everything!"
"Sorry for that," murmured Ravenslee, "because I rather like you, Spider. I think you could be quite a decent fellow if you tried very hard! Come, shake your grouch and let's be friends."
"Say," growled the Spider, "what you're sufferin' from's a hard neck! You ain't no friend o' mine—not much you ain't, savvy? So crank up an' get on yer way like a good little feller!"
"But you see I'm anxious to find Spike because—"
"Well, say, you keep on bein' anxious, only do it somewheres else. I don't want youse around where I am, see? So beat it while d' goin's good!"
"Why—er—no," said Ravenslee in his laziest tones, "no, I don't think I'll beat it. I guess I'll stay right here and wait until you are so kind, so—er—very kind and obliging as to show me where I can find Spike." And he sighed plaintively as he lounged against the wall behind, but his eyes were surprisingly bright and quick beneath the shadow of the battered hat.
"Hully Chee!" exclaimed the Spider, expectorating contemptuously, "hark to the flossy-boy, fellers! Aw, run away, now!" said he, scowling suddenly, "run away before ye get slapped on th' wrist!" and, while divers of his companions laughed hoarsely, he turned a contemptuous back on Mr. Ravenslee. But even then he was seized in iron fingers that clutched his shoulder and, in that painful grip, was jerked suddenly around again to behold a face vicious-eyed, thin-lipped, square-jawed, fiercely outthrust. Recognising the "fighting-face", the Spider, being a fighter of a large and varied experience, immediately "covered up", and fell into that famous crouch of his that had proved the undoing of so many doughty fighters ere now. Then, like a flash, his long arm shot out, but in that same instant, Ravenslee, timing the blow to a fraction, moved slightly, and the Spider's knuckles bruised themselves against the wall at the precise moment that Ravenslee's open hand flipped lightly on the side of the Spider's square, lean jaw.