"I didn't say I would."
"If you did steal his watch, would you, or would you not be a thief?"
Ben Ludlow did not like to answer this question, and he was silent.
"Of course he would be a thief!" exclaimed Life Windham; and half a dozen others took this view of the question.
"If the owner of the watch should prosecute you, would the judge decide that taking the watch was not stealing because the owner of it had stolen your watch before you did it?"
"Stealing is stealing, of course," answered Ben Ludlow.
"Then you would both be thieves," added Dory clinching his argument.
"There is no getting away from that conclusion," said Ned Bellows; and the rest of the crew indorsed his opinion.
"I suppose one who calls names is a blackguard. When the students of the Collegiate Institute call us 'tinkers' 'greasy mechanics' or any other offensive names, they are blackguards," continued Dory.