“Oh, you!” said Jimmy in disgust. “What is there to tell? Well, all right, fellows. Only this is just between us, understand? It’s a little scheme of my own. You see, Dud here is—well, he’s just as you see him now. He thinks big thoughts and he’s a nice boy, but he’s a graven image when he gets outside his room. Well, he likes fun as much as the rest of us but he doesn’t get it because he always thinks he isn’t wanted around. He—he’s shy, you know. At least, I suppose that’s it. I never was that way and don’t know much about it.”
Nick and Hugh laughed.
“So I said one day: ‘Dud,’ I said, ‘you do like I tell you and I’ll have you mixing in no time at all. I’ll make a regular feller of you, and it won’t cost you a cent. All you’ve got to do is what I tell you.’ So Dud said: ‘Oh, pshaw!’ or words to that effect, but agreed to try the scheme. First thing I did was to make a list of fellows he ought to know. Then we started in and got acquainted. It was hard sledding because just as soon as I got him into a bunch of fellows he’d get tongue-tied. Well, I saw that that wouldn’t do and so I began to get off the good things Dud said——”
“All of which you made up?” chuckled Nick.
“No, not all, honest. Some I did, of course. Dud didn’t deliver the goods fast enough. And—well, that’s all there is to it. Perfectly legitimate, you see, although Dud has had his doubts now and then and threatened mutiny once or twice. We’ve got on fairly well. I haven’t exactly popularized him yet, but I haven’t done so badly either. Lately he’s been sort of kicking over the traces and refusing to pull, but we’re progressing slowly. Now you know all about it. If either of you chaps blab I’ll punch your head.”
“So that’s it,” mused Nick. “Some scheme, eh, ’Ighness?”
“Rather!”
“I’m glad you know,” said Dud, embarrassed, “because it’s always seemed so silly for Jimmy to go around getting off a lot of funny jokes and crediting them to me, and then—then for me to just stand around and act like a dummy. I suppose we went into it as a sort of lark, or—well, I don’t know. I suppose it sounds funny to you chaps. But I wanted you to know.”
“I knew already,” said Hugh. “That is, I guessed a long time ago.”
“Honest?” exclaimed Jimmy. “Say, that’s queer, because when I asked Dud which of the fellows he’d like to——”