“Then I knew he was a beat, and I made a fuss, I tell you, and follered him into the hotel.
“‘What’s the matter?’ asked one of the hotel men, comin’ forrard.
“‘This boy wants me to pay him twice,’ he says.
“Of course, the hotel people took up for the man and kicked me out of the hotel. I didn’t blame them so much, for who’d think of a gentleman cheatin’ a poor boy?”
“That was pretty hard on you,” said Robert in a tone of sympathy. “He must have been a mean man.”
“Mean? I guess he was. But I got even with him, and I didn’t wait long neither.”
“How was that?”
“I got an egg and I laid for him. Toward night he come out, all dressed up like as if he was goin’ to the theayter. I follered him, and when I got a good chance I just hove it at him. I hit him just in his bosom, and the egg was spattered over his face and clothes. He gave a yell and then I dodged round the corner. Oh, it was rich to see how he looked! I guess he’d better have paid me.”
Robert could not help laughing, and did not find it in his heart to blame the boy who had chosen this summary way to redress his grievances.
“I hope,” he said, “you haven’t got any eggs with you now.”