"Yet it took me twenty minutes to persuade you to have a bite," laughed the bookmaker triumphantly. "Look here, lad, we shall soon be at Moston, and perhaps I shan't see you again, though I'm generally knocking about near the market-place. Now, I like you. You've called me a liar and a thief—that's straight talking, and better than a cisternful of 'soft soap', though it isn't true of 'Chuck' Smithies, the commission agent. Still, I've enjoyed your society, and you can always remember you've got a pal in me if ever you're 'up against it', and want a lift. Here's Moston, and the best of friends must part, as the old song says. Come, now, are we going to shake hands or not?"
He put out his hand in an awkward fashion, quite obviously expecting Dick to ignore it. But the Captain gripped it without hesitation, and smiled rather shyly back.
"You've been good to me," he said. "I hate betting—yours is a putrid business—but if I've said anything to hurt your feelings, wash it out. I'm sorry!"
CHAPTER XIII
The Printer is Polite no Longer
Christmas appeared to have upset the liver of the printer of The Rooke's House Rag. He was half-way down Dick's throat, in a manner of speaking, the moment that unfortunate young editor entered the works.
"There'll be no more copies of your precious magazine issued from this establishment, I warn you," he flared. "Call yourself captain of a gentlemen's school! You're captain of a lot of prigs and bullies, that's what you are!"
Dick was getting used to reverses of fortune nowadays, and he received this outburst calmly.
"I've some recollection that you called me the soul of honour last term," he replied. "Now you apparently think me a hooligan."
"I didn't say that. But you're a captain of hooligans all the same, Mr. Forge. A nice life you let them lead my poor boy last term! I sent him to Foxenby to learn to be a gentleman—not having had the advantages of a public-school education myself—and instead he's set-upon and browbeaten daily by gangs of young blackguards, and you never lift a finger to protect him."