“You don’t have to tell him any such thing,” I said
“You stick to me and you’ll be O. K.,” Hervey told him. “Didn’t I just save your life?”
The poor sharpy didn’t know what to make of it all. He was grateful to Hervey, that’s sure. I guess he saw it wasn’t any use denying anything. I guess he wasn’t scared any more, because Hervey seemed to be making friends with him, sort of. I had to laugh because after all Hervey’s fine plan to bring this fellow back like a prisoner, there he was sort of pals with him. Christopher, but he’s a sketch.
The fellow said, “They’ll make a lot of trouble for me over there.”
“They make it for me too,” Hervey said; “don’t you care.”
“The place was open; I just walked in,” the sharpy said. “There was a sign that said Visitors Welcome. You fellows invited me to drop over.”
“You sure dropped over,” I began laughing. “The water is unusually wet to-night. You didn’t take anything over there. They’ll give you a good calling down, that’s all.”
“I get one of those every day,” Hervey said.
“You mean every minute,” I told him.
Then I said, “All you have to do is come over with us, and anyway you can’t help it, because I’m sculling the boat around now, and then all you have to do is admit just what you did so as to prove this friend of mine didn’t lie. You can do that much, can’t you? He saved your life. You can put him right with the crowd over there, can’t you? That’s all you have to do. It’s just a question of whether you’ve got a yellow streak or not.”