“If you do, I’ll wring your neck. I wouldn’t stay in this hole another day if he came on his knees and asked me. What right has he to want to make sneaks of us? Do you mean to say you and young Brown thought all along I had done it, and that I was telling lies when I said I didn’t?”
“I thought perhaps you’d done it in your sleep, and didn’t know.”
He laughed scornfully.
“That’s why you two were mum?” asked he. “Didn’t want to let out on me?”
“Well, yes, partly. I’m awfully sorry, Dux. Will you ever forgive me?”
“Forgive you, kid! If I’d time I’d thrash you within an inch of your life for being such a fool, and then I’d thank you for being such a trump—you and Brown too.”
“Is it too late to do anything now?” asked I again.
“Not for me—nothing would keep me here. But I don’t see why you should be expelled. I’ll tell Plummer it was a mistake.”
“No, you won’t,” said I, catching his arm. “I wouldn’t stay here now for worlds.”
“It’s rough all round,” said Tempest, looking profoundly miserable, as the rumble of a cab came up to the hall door.