In spite of himself his voice broke and Bob quickly filled in the gap.
"Please do not try, sir. We both know how you feel and really it was nothing."
"Well, I like that," Clara declared.
Bob's face turned the color of a ripe tomato, according to Jack's statement made later, and he stammered:
"I—I didn't mean it that way, I—I——"
"I suppose you meant that it was nothing unusual for you to save a girl from the briny deep," Clara interrupted.
"Only it wasn't briny," Mrs. Leeds laughed and her laughter, in which they all joined, did much to relieve the situation.
"Maine is a great state, the greatest in the Union."
It was nearly half past eleven o'clock and the boys were sitting with Mr. Leeds on the porch of the latter's cottage. Mrs. Leeds and Clara had retired and the boys had started to take their departure, but Mr. Leeds had begged them to keep him company a while longer and it was he who made the above statement.
"You don't have to tell us that," Jack assured him.