“I’ll tell. I’ll tell,” cried Pop quickly.
“I’ll give you till I count three,” said John. “One, two–”
“A man becomes a Son of Neptune,” said George, “when he has crossed the equator on a boat. Now will you promise not to hurt me? Not that you could do it if you tried,” he added, but he muttered the words so softly to himself that no one else heard him.
“Is that what a Son of Neptune is?” exclaimed John.
“Yes, String, that’s what a Son of Neptune is,” said George, imitating as nearly as possible his friend’s tone of voice.
“Who told you?” demanded Grant.
“What has that got to do with it?”
“Who told you?” repeated Grant sharply. “We’ll have to take some of this freshness out of him pretty soon, String,” he added.
“We surely will,” agreed John readily. “I’m ready at any time.”
The four friends loved to tease and banter one another and oftentimes an outsider might have thought from their conversation that they had lost their tempers. Such, however, was never the case. They knew one another too well and all had too much sense for any such foolishness. In particular they all liked to tease and threaten Pop Sanders, though in any contest of wits he usually held his own and the threats of his comrades had no effect upon him whatever.