"Horrid thing! You"re the only boy who smokes them that we know. What do you say, girls? Sha"n"t we cut Purt right off of our calling lists if he doesn"t give up monogrammed cigarettes?"
"They"re the worst kind," murmured Chet. "The monogram makes "em so much more deadly."
"I tried one of Purt"s coffin nails once--ugh!" admitted Lance. "He calls "em mild. But he"s so saturated with nicotine that he doesn"t know what "mild" means. I believe they make his cigarettes out of rope-yarn and distilled opium. One puff made me ill all day."
"Impossible, dear boy!" gasped Purt.
"I believe it"s as Lance says," said Laura, gravely. "And Purt sets a very bad example for the other boys."
"Sure!" grinned her brother. "We"re all likely to run off and send for a thousand monogrammed cigarettes."
"What! what!" cried Jess. "Did Purt buy a _thousand_?"
"I--I had to, Miss Josephine, to get the monogram printed on the wrapper, you know."
"Come," said Laura, still with a serious air. "We must decide what is to be done with this culprit, girls."
"I think he should not be allowed to a.s.sociate with any of the girls of Central High," said one of the twins.
"Or with the boys, either," suggested Lance.
"His example _is_ dreadfully bad," said Jess.
"Weally! I a.s.sure you----" panted Purt, wrigging all over, and not quite sure whether the girls meant it, or were "rigging" him.
"Have you any more of those nasty cigarettes with you?" demanded Laura, sternly.
Purt, looking greatly abashed, hauled out a saturated case of seal leather and displayed nine of the pulpy looking things.
"So you only smoked one of them to-day?" was the next demand.
"And he only just got that lit when the vapor from the gasoline caught fire. Like to have burned him to death," grunted Chet.
"That single smoke was certainly a very expensive one for you, Master Purt," declared Laura. "For perhaps it has cost you your motor-boat At least, it has cost you more than the whole thousand cigarettes were worth. Kindly throw those disreputable looking things away!"
Purt obeyed instantly by tossing case and all into the lake.
"Ugh! now you"ll poison the fish," complained Jess.
"Never mind the fish," said Laura, still intent upon the victim. "Now, Purt, how many cigarettes have you left at home?"
"Oh--I--ah----"
"Do not prevaricate!" commanded the girl. "Answer at once."
"Why--I--I have most of the thousand left," admitted Purt.
"Say! you always carry around a full case to flash on the fellows--I see you," cried Lance.
"Ye--es," admitted Purt.
"Tell the truth, sir! How many of the horrid things have you left at home?"
Purt looked up at her, blinked a couple of times, swallowed like a toad that has snapped up a live coal, and then blurted out:
"Nine hundred and ninety!"
At that a howl of laughter went up from the crowd.
"And--and you--you"ve nev--never smoked even _one_?" gasped Laura, at last.
"Not until to-day," replied the sadly abashed Purt.
"Oh, hold me, somebody!" cried Lance. "And he"s had those cigarettes for three months, I know!"
"Purt, you"ll be the death of us yet," declared Chet Belding, wiping his eyes.
"I--I couldn"t get used to the taste of them in my mouth," confessed the dude.
"You"re more fun than a box of monkeys!" declared Lance.
"That reminds me, girls," said Chet, suddenly, and picking up the checks to pay the bill before Purt Sweet could get around to it. "There"s an enormously funny monkey over here. Trained to a hair. I saw him over in Centerport when his owner brought him through----"
"I saw that monkey--with a piano organ. And such a nice looking Italian with it," declared Laura.
"Look out, Lance," whispered Chet, grinning, "she likes the romantic and dark complexioned style in heroes. Get some walnut stain and a black wig."
"Why, he was playing in the streets, over in town," said Jess.
"That was just to advertise his act before the season opened," declared Chet. "So he told me."
"All right," Laura said. "The boat isn"t due yet, so we might as well remain with you boys until it comes and so keep you out of mischief."
"But I really look so badly----" began Purt.
"Never mind. You won"t meet the Maline girls here," snapped Jess, as though she were still very angry with him.
"Come on, Purt--be a sport," whispered Lance, with a wicked grin. "It won"t cost you anything except what you give to the monkey--and that"s a private affair between you and the monk you know."
It was true that Sweet was a "tight-wad," as the boys expressed it. He would spend any amount of money on himself, or to make a show; but liberality was not one of his virtues.
The young folks were not long in finding the booth, across which was painted a straggling sign reading:
TONY ALLEGRETTO AND HIS PERFORMING MONKEY
"Which is the "monk"?" demanded Lance, in a whisper, when they saw two very gaily dressed figures on the tiny platform before the booth.
The Italian himself was a short, agile young man, but not ill-looking.