“Eh?” said Dan in bewilderment.
“Don’t you see everybody staring at us?” continued Dud, wrathfully. “To be shouting at dirty little beggars like those and disgracing us all!”
“Disgracing you?” echoed Dan.
“Yes,” said Dud, still hot with pride and rage. “And there are the Fosters on the upper deck,—people I know. Come, Jim, let’s cut off before they see us with this low-down chump.”
And Dud led easy-going Jim to the other side of the boat.
“Low-down chump!” Unconscious as he was of any offense, Dan felt the scornful sting of the words, and his hot blood began to boil; but he remembered the “pricks and goads” he had resolved to bear bravely, and shut his lips tight together as Freddy stole a small hand into his own.
With the last “Hi-yi” the Wharf Rats had settled back to their occupation, and Freddy eyed them from the growing distance most favorably.
“Did you ever fish like that, Dan?” he asked with interest.
“Often,” was the brief reply; for Dan was still hot and sore.
“Golly, it must be fun! And did you catch anything, Dan?”