“What on earth is the matter with you, boy?” he asked at last, as he playfully grabbed Tony by the shoulder and began to maul him.
“Let up!” cried Tony. “Can’t you see I’m thinking out the problems of the universe? You mess me all up and I don’t know where I’m at.”
“Well, compose yourself, and let me offer you advice.”
“Let up then, do! And consider the appropriateness of the figures of speech, as Gumshoe would say. Bill Morris has been darn white to me——”
“Rather,” commented Reggie, with a smile, “we are all green with envy at his whiteness.”
“Don’t interrupt; as I was trying to say, Mr. Morris has been exceedingly white to me; so much so that I have often wondered how I might show him I appreciate it. Well, the fact is, he has asked me to do something just lately that I don’t in the least want to do, and I don’t see how in the deuce I am to get out of it.”
“Knowing Morris,” commented Carroll, lazily, “I don’t in the least fancy you are going to get out of it. He lays his plans too well. What does he want?”
“Have you seen Finch, the new boy?”
“Finch?—oh! the kid they call Pinch. Yes, boy, I have seen him; one look was too much. It’s awful.” Then Reggie’s eyes lighted, and he gave an exclamation. “By Jove, I see it all—the whole thing—Bill wants you to be his guardian angel.”