“You’d prefer a different kind of a choker,” suggested Jack.
“What do you mean by that?” demanded Alonzo roughly.
“No offense, lieutenant,” said Jack. “Let a man have his joke. We’re all in the same boat, as far as that goes.”
But Alonzo still looked moody, and did not seem inclined to accept the apology.
Upon this Jack, to restore good feelings, brought out his violin, for he was a little of a musician, and begun to play a lively dancing tune.
“Let’s have a dance,” said one.
This suggestion was well received, and the members of the band begun to leap about to the inspiring airs of the fiddle.
Then it was that a bright thought entered the mind of one of the robbers—we will call him Bill.
“Have out the Dutchman,” he said. “Let us make him dance.”
This proposal was received with a shout of laughter, in which Alonzo joined as heartily as the rest. Even Tom, though he sympathized with his fellow-captive, could not help shouting with laughter as he pictured to himself the burly form prancing up and down in the mazy dance.