“I arranged it with Hiram to stay with us just as long as he could stand for it,” explained Rob; “and that when he did feel he had to go, to call at the little booth of the tobacconist where we’ve arranged to meet, not later than four this afternoon.”
“Remember that, you Andy,” warned Tubby, shaking a fat finger in the direction of the other, “in case we happen to get separated! Accidents will come along sometimes, you know; and you’re likely to feel that call to the wild again any old time.”
Andy only laughed. Apparently he had a tough hide when it came to resisting such harmless blunt-nosed shafts as Tubby could launch against him.
“I’ll keep it in mind, Tubby, I promise you,” he remarked; “but after we’ve had something to eat, you won’t try to keep me any longer. We’re all here to enjoy ourselves according to our bent, you must remember.”
“And your bent runs along the line of the spectacular display of gaudy tinsel and all sorts of make-believe frauds!” continued Tubby, pretending to curl his short upper lip in disdain, though truth to tell he rather enjoyed a little of the same pleasures himself.
“Have it as you please, Tubby,” Andy told him. “To me they’re all real, and when I find myself surrounded by that wonderful foreign atmosphere, it’s just like I’d taken wings and flown over there to Africa, or Asia, or the islands of the Far East. Rob, make him stop trying to interfere with my pleasure. Just because one fortune-teller riled him, Tubby sneers at everything that wears a Turkish fez, a Bedouin bournoose or a Persian caftan. I guess I know how to sift the chaff from the wheat. And a fellow who means to be a world traveler some day ought to rub up against these sort of people all he can.”
Tubby gave it up. He knew nothing he could say would alter Andy’s deep-rooted convictions. Indeed, it was more to get even with him that the stout scout spoke as he did.
Later on they hunted up a dining-place where they could secure a fair meal for their money, at least as good as was to be expected under the circumstances.
“Now laugh if you want to, Tubby,” said Andy, boldly, after they had issued forth from the restaurant. “I’m going to break away, and you know where I’ll be heading. You keep Rob company the rest of the day. He’s got a list of things he’s fairly itching to see, and it’s as long as my arm, at that. Good luck to you!”
He hurried off without waiting to hear what Tubby might have to say; but the latter only shook his head as he caught the amused look in Rob’s eyes, and shrugged his fat shoulders as though ready to give Andy up as beyond redemption.