"So," said he very sarcastically, "that's silly--immeasurably silly, I call it. Look out or you'll go back without a head yourself. But first tell me,--have you any ancestors, honorable ancestors?"
"What are ancestors, honorable ancestors, sir?" Marmaduke inquired. He thought that if he said "sir"--very politely--it might help matters a bit.
"Oh, people in your family who lived long before you, and who have long beards and are very honest," returned the robber chief.
Marmaduke thought it was odd, his mentioning that honorable ancestors must be honest, when he was a robber himself, but anyway he was relieved as he thought of "Greatgrandpa Boggs."
"Yes," he told Choo Choo Choo, "if that's what it is, I have an honorable ancestor--Greatgrandpa Boggs. He was very old before he died. He was so old his voice sounded like a tiny baby's, and he had a beard--a long and white one--that nearly reached to the bottom button of his vest, and he must have been honest, 'cause Mother said he might have been rich if he hadn't been so honest."
"But wait a minute," roared Choo Choo Choo, "did he have fingernails as long as mine?"
"No," replied Marmaduke, "they were short like these," and he showed him his own hands.
"Pss-ss-iss-sst!" said Choo Choo Choo in disgust, "he couldn't have been so very honorable then. I guess we'd better behead you without any more argument."
He looked around at the sky and so did Marmaduke. It was very pretty and blue, and the road looked very white and inviting, the tea-bushes very lovely and green.
"It's just the right weather for beheading," remarked Choo Choo Choo, "soldiers, are your swords very sharp?" and he patted the snake made of pennies that curved up the white road.