“Who are you?” he demanded, roughly. “What does this mean?”
Captain Bunderley was disposed to be diplomatic.
“I’m here in the interests of this boy, Mr. Whiffin,” he said, politely.
“Well, I can’t see that it’s any of your affair.”
“Decidedly not!” seconded Mr. Spudger.
“This here fat Brandon filled his head chuck full of nonsense, an’, as if that weren’t bad enough, he gits him to actually run away—run away from his best friend. Why, I could have the law on ’im!”
“I had nothing to do with it, Mr. Whiffin,” answered Dave.
“Oh, cut it out, now. Yer can’t fool me. Yer took ’im right along in the automobile. I know yer did.”
“’Tain’t nothin’ of the sort, Whiffin!” cried Joe. “I rid on the train. An’ I kin prove it.”
“What!” exclaimed Mr. Whiffin. In spite of his suspicions, there was something in Joe’s earnest manner which impelled him to accept his words as the truth. “What! An’ you wasted good money that way? It’s perfectly outrageous, that’s what it is.”