“Well, I guess he was actually thin-skinned enough to believe I really meant it. I’ll bet he went tearing over to Uncle Ralph and jollied him into going off without me.”
“What a ridiculous idea, Vic!” laughed Dave. “Why should Tom have done such a thing?”
Victor eyed him scornfully.
“Just to get ahead of the game, that’s why. Don’t you see?”
“No, I don’t, Vic.”
“Then brush up your perceptive faculties a bit. Here it is a second time: he was so afraid that I might get Uncle Ralph to take you chaps to Milwaukee as a joke—see?—that he sets his wits to work, goes over to the yacht to find out, discovers that you and I are at the circus, and plays the joke first. See again?”
“Bob and Charlie would never have stood for such a thing,” declared Dave.
“They would!” returned Victor. “And I know Uncle Ralph; he’s just the one to fall for a game like that.”
The stout boy raised his hand protestingly.
“Why, Vic!”