"Which finger?" asked the mystified Penrod, extending his hand.
"The middle one."
"Where?"
"There!" exclaimed Rupe Collins, seizing and vigorously twisting the wartless finger naively offered for his inspection.
"Quit!" shouted Penrod in agony. "QUEE-yut!"
"Say your prayers!" commanded Rupe, and continued to twist the luckless finger until Penrod writhed to his knees.
"OW!" The victim, released, looked grievously upon the still painful finger.
At this Rupe"s scornful expression altered to one of contrition. "Well, I declare!" he exclaimed remorsefully. "I didn"t s"pose it would hurt.
Turn about"s fair play; so now you do that to me."
He extended the middle finger of his left hand and Penrod promptly seized it, but did not twist it, for he was instantly swung round with his back to his amiable new acquaintance: Rupe"s right hand operated upon the back of Penrod"s slender neck; Rupe"s knee tortured the small of Penrod"s back.
"OW!" Penrod bent far forward involuntarily and went to his knees again.
"Lick dirt," commanded Rupe, forcing the captive"s face to the sidewalk; and the suffering Penrod completed this ceremony.
Mr. Collins evinced satisfaction by means of his horse laugh.
"You"d last jest about one day up at the Third!" he said. "You"d come runnin" home, yellin" "MOM-MUH, MOM-muh," before recess was over!"
"No, I wouldn"t," Penrod protested rather weakly, dusting his knees.
"You would, too!"
"No, I w----
"Looky here," said the fat-faced boy, darkly, "what you mean, counterd.i.c.king me?"
He advanced a step and Penrod hastily qualified his contradiction.
"I mean, I don"t THINK I would. I----"
"You better look out!" Rupe moved closer, and unexpectedly grasped the back of Penrod"s neck again. "Say, "I WOULD run home yellin" "MOM-muh!"""
"Ow! I WOULD run home yellin" "Mom-muh.""
"There!" said Rupe, giving the helpless nape a final squeeze. "That"s the way we do up at the Third."
Penrod rubbed his neck and asked meekly:
"Can you do that to any boy up at the Third?"
"See here now," said Rupe, in the tone of one goaded beyond all endurance, "YOU say if I can! You better say it quick, or----"
"I knew you could," Penrod interposed hastily, with the pathetic semblance of a laugh. "I only said that in fun."
"In "fun"!" repeated Rupe stormily. "You better look out how you----"
"Well, I SAID I wasn"t in earnest!" Penrod retreated a few steps. "_I_ knew you could, all the time. I expect _I_ could do it to some of the boys up at the Third, myself. Couldn"t I?"
"No, you couldn"t."
"Well, there must be SOME boy up there that I could----"
"No, they ain"t! You better----"
"I expect not, then," said Penrod, quickly.
"You BETTER "expect not." Didn"t I tell you once you"d never get back alive if you ever tried to come up around the Third? You want me to SHOW you how we do up there, "bo?"
He began a slow and deadly advance, whereupon Penrod timidly offered a diversion:
"Say, Rupe, I got a box of rats in our stable under a gla.s.s cover, so you can watch "em jump around when you hammer on the box. Come on and look at "em."
"All right," said the fat-faced boy, slightly mollified. "We"ll let Dan kill "em."
"No, SIR! I"m goin" to keep "em. They"re kind of pets; I"ve had "em all summer--I got names for em, and----"
"Looky here, "bo. Did you hear me say we"ll let "Dan kill "em?"
"Yes, but I won"t----"
"WHAT won"t you?" Rupe became sinister immediately. "It seems to me you"re gettin" pretty fresh around here."
"Well, I don"t want----"
Mr. Collins once more brought into play the dreadful eye-to-eye scowl as practised "up at the Third," and, sometimes, also by young leading men upon the stage. Frowning appallingly, and thrusting forward his underlip, he placed his nose almost in contact with the nose of Penrod, whose eyes naturally became crossed.
"Dan kills the rats. See?" hissed the fat-faced boy, maintaining the horrible juxtaposition.
"Well, all right," said Penrod, swallowing. "I don"t want "em much."
And when the pose had been relaxed, he stared at his new friend for a moment, almost with reverence. Then he brightened.
"Come on, Rupe!" he cried enthusiastically, as he climbed the fence.
"We"ll give our dogs a little live meat--"bo!"
CHAPTER XXII THE IMITATOR
At the dinner-table, that evening, Penrod Surprised his family by remarking, in a voice they had never heard him attempt--a law-giving voice of intentional gruffness:
"Any man that"s makin" a hunderd dollars a month is makin" good money."