"Suppose I don't?"
"Then I'll whip you till you can't stand."
"This is better than any circus I ever attended," said Robert, delighted.
"He'll think it's a circus before he gets through," said Hercules, significantly. "Well, my ill-looking friend, I must inform you in the outset that you are taking a good deal of trouble for a very little. My stock of money is very low."
"I don't care; you can hand over what you've got."
"Or fight for it?"
"Yes," growled the tramp.
"I think I'll fight—a little friendly encounter. It's the custom to shake hands first; will you do it?"
The tramp extended his hand, which Hercules at once grasped with such an iron pressure that the tramp fairly danced and howled with pain, while the veins swelled upon his forehead.
"Let go!" he yelled.