"It would be mighty exciting to be held up!" Christopher gasped, his eyes wide with interest.
"Exciting!" mimicked his father sarcastically. "Exciting! Humph! I guess you would find it something more than exciting if a group of yeggs thrust a pistol under your nose. You seem to forget that persons who hold up a messenger do it to get the goods."
"But they don't always succeed?" came breathlessly from Christopher.
"Not in moving pictures," was the grim retort. "In the movies, somebody always happens along at the crucial moment, rescues the hero, captures the villain, and everything is all right. That is the sort of hold-up you are accustomed to, son. But in real life the villain is a desperate character armed with a gun that goes off. You forget that."
Christopher looked crestfallen and flushed uncomfortably.
"Perhaps I am shaking your courage a little and you won't be so eager to go to town with me," jested Mr. Burton.
"On the contrary, the scheme appeals to me more than ever."
"You actually hanker to meet a bandit or two?"
"It would certainly add a thrill to life to encounter a bandit," grinned Christopher.
"Add a thrill!" Mr. Button sniffed. "Add a thrill! Well, I will tell you right now that when you feel a desire for a thrill like that coming on, you can go straight to the movies and indulge it. You shall have no such thrills at my expense," and without more ado Christopher Mark Antony Burton, senior, lighted a fresh cigar, took up his paper, and dismissed the matter.