"It wasn't much to do. I would have gone for him myself if you had given me the chance."
"There was no time to waste," was Robert's brief reply. "Come, you can jump ashore now," he added, to his dripping passenger.
"Aren't you coming ashore?" said Snipper slowly.
"No, I am going out on the river. I don't think any of you will stop me from using this boat now."
"You can take it so far as I am concerned," answered the bully's toady, with a face full of shame. "I shan't set myself up against you again, I can tell you that!"
"Yes, go on and take the boat, Frost," put in one of the other boys. "You're the right sort, and I'm sorry we attacked you."
One of the other boys also spoke up, expressing his regrets at the encounter. But Sammy Gump remained silent, his face just as sour as before.
"I'm awfully thankful he pulled me out," said Bob Snipper, after Robert had left the vicinity of the dock. "If he hadn't I would have been drowned."
"That's right, Bob," said one of the others.
"Humph!" muttered Sammy. "You are trying to make a regular hero out of him, when he is nothing of the sort."