“Never mind what time it is,” replied Jimmy severely. “It’s time you were up and doing——”
“‘With a heart for any fate,’” murmured Dud poetically if sleepily. “What day is it?”
“Great Jumpin’ Jehosophat!” exclaimed Jimmy. “He doesn’t even know the date! It’s a Tuesday, darling, and the month’s February, and the year——”
“Then it’s today practice begins,” said Dud. “I knew there was something.” He arose and sought his bath robe. “I’ll bet it’s awfully early. I don’t hear anyone up.”
“You hear me up,” responded his roommate. “As a matter of fact, I don’t know just what time it is, because you forgot to wind the clock and my watch has stopped and I couldn’t find yours. But it must be long after six——”
“Six!” grunted Dud in deep disgust. “What do you go pulling me out of bed at six for? I’m going back again!”
“I said it was long after six. Where’s your watch? Have a look at it.”
Dud discovered that article at last dangling over the back of a chair, it having escaped from a pocket, and in more mollified tones informed Jimmy that it was twenty to seven. In the corridor a door opened and slippered feet pattered toward the bathroom. Jimmy set his watch and the clock, found his own robe and then, pausing at the door, asked solicitously:
“How’s the old arm, Dud?”
“Sore,” was the answer. Dud bent it and flexed it—it was his right one—and observed it scowlingly. “It’s lame all the way to the shoulder. Ouch! And the shoulder’s lame, too!”