"Didn't I tell you?—It isn't a bit of use badgering children when they don't want to tell. Let's go over to the castle."
And with that the three gentlemen went out, while Napoleon Smith, Prissy, and Sir Toady Lion were left alone.
The General beckoned them to his bedside with his nose—quite an easy thing to do if you have the right kind of nose, which Hugh John had.
"Now look here," he said, "if you'd told, I'd have jolly well flattened you when I got up. 'Tisn't our business to tell p'leecemen things."
"That wasn't a p'leeceman," said Sir Toady Lion, "hadn't no shiny buttons."
"That's the worst kind," said the General in a low, hissing whisper; "all the same you stood to it like bricks, and now I'm going to get well and begin on the campaign at once."
"Don't you be greedy-teeth and eat it all yourself!" interjected Toady Lion, who thought that the campaign was something to eat, and that it sounded good.
"What are you going to do?" said Prissy, who had a great belief in the executive ability of her brother.
"I know their secret hold," said General-Field-Marshal Smith grandly, "and in the hour of their fancied security we will fall upon them and——"
"And what?" gasped Prissy and Toady Lion together, awaiting the revelation of the horror.