"We, the Foxenby Junior Games Club, hereby challenge Robin Hood and his Merry Men to a three-cornered tournament, viz: Games of Chess, Draughts, and Dominoes, to be played in the Holbeck House Games-room on Friday evening next."
"Oh, great gingerbreads, that's ripping!" said Niblo.
"Best idea ever!" said Vinns.
"Humph!" grunted Grain. "Must be grass-green, both of you, if you fancy they'll rise to a bait like that."
Osbody looked annoyed. Grain's habit of throwing cold water on everything he suggested was always a thorn in the flesh of the leader of the Squirms.
"See nothing to sneer about, Grain," he snapped. "Why shouldn't they bite?"
"They'll make paper pellets of the challenge," Grain persisted. "What asses they would be to play us on our own pitch, so to speak, at games they don't stand an earthly in. Fancy Arkness bringing his men like lambs to the slaughter! He's too fly for that!"
"I agree," said Niblo, with a sigh of disappointment. "It won't come off, 'Body, old man. Better make paper boats of the challenge than give Robin the chance to be sarcastic about it."
"Yes," said Vinns. "He's confoundedly clever at writing skits."
But Osbody stubbornly declined to be talked out of his venture. "Stow your jaw, everybody," he said. "This challenge is going, whatever you say. I'm positive it's the only way of taking a rise out of Arkness and his Shrubbery hooligans."