Captain Jerry came tumbling up the stairs, breathless and half dressed.
“Where do you make it out to be?” he panted.
“Somewhere's nigh the post-office. Looks 's if it might be Weeks's store. Where's Perez?”
Captain Eri had lighted a lamp and was pulling on his boots, as he spoke.
“Here I be!” shouted the missing member of the trio from the dining room below. “I'm all ready. Hurry up, Eri!”
Captain Eri jumped into his trousers, slipped into a faded pea-jacket and clattered downstairs, followed by the wildly excited Jerry.
“Good land, Perez!” he cried, as he came into the dining room, “I thought you said you was all ready!”
Captain Perez paused in the vain attempt to make Captain Jerry's hat cover his own cranium and replied indignantly, “Well, I am, ain't I?”
“Seems to me I'd put somethin' on my feet besides them socks, if I was you. You might catch cold.”
Perez glanced down at his blue-yarn extremities in blank astonishment. “Well, now,” he exclaimed, “if I hain't forgot my boots!”