At this, to the astonishment of George, Major Hyde burst into a laugh; and his friend joined him heartily.
“Very shrewdly spoken,” said the major. “Eh, Henderson?”
“’Pon my soul,” said the dragoon, “I’ve never listened to a neater stroke of the tongue.”
“A little wager with Henderson, that is all,” explained Hyde, putting his hands upon George’s shoulders and swaying him backward and forward. “I ventured a good dinner that upon the very next time we met, I could worm something out of you regarding your private transactions for the various commanders. Henderson had a better notion of your shrewdness than I, so it seems, and——”
“And I expect the dinner to be paid with the utmost promptness,” declared the foppish dragoon, delightedly. “But, ’pon my soul, Hyde,” with a shout of laughter, “what a farrago of nonsense you used to gain your point! And how you scowled and shook your head! You should have turned your mind to play-acting instead of soldiering.”
“How am I to know, though,” and Major Hyde joined in the laugh, “that I did not come somewhere near the real facts as they stand? Come now, was there such a person as I imagined?”
“I can only say,” returned George, good-humoredly, “that I have done my plain duty upon all occasions. If I say more I may lose Captain Henderson his dinner.”
The dragoon slapped his thigh at this, and vowed that as a witticism he had never heard its equal.
“He’s a rare fellow, this lad from Boston,” declared he.
“He’s gotten the better of me this time, at any rate,” answered the major, good-naturedly enough.