Part 32 (1/2)
The colonel gasped.
”Apologize! Why, I can't----”
”Then I'm going to give you those black eyes just as sure as my name is Scotch! Put up your fists!”
The colonel retreated, holding up his hands helplessly, while the professor pranced after him like a fighting c.o.c.k.
”This is disgraceful!” snapped Rolf Raymond, taking a step, as if to interfere. ”It must be stopped at once!”
”Hold on!” came sternly from Frank. ”Don't chip in where you're not wanted, Mr. Raymond. Let them settle this matter themselves.”
”Thot's roight, me laddybuck,” said Barney Mulloy. ”If you bother thim, it's a pair av black oies ye may own yersilf.”
”We did not come here to be bullied.”
”No,” said Frank; ”you came to play the bullies, and the tables have been turned on you. Take it easy.”
The two boys placed themselves in such a position that they could prevent Raymond from interfering between the colonel and the professor.
”Don't strike me, sah!” gasped Vallier, holding up his open hands, with the palms toward the bantam-like professor.
”Then do you apologize?”
”You will strike me if I do not apologize?”
”You may bet your life that I will, colonel.”
”Then I--ah--I'll have to apologize, sah.”
”And this settles the entire affair between us?”
”Eh--I don't know about that.”
”Well, you had better know. Does this settle the entire affair?”
”I suppose so, sah.”
”You apologize most humbly?”
”I do.”
”And you state of your own free will that this settles all trouble between us?”
The colonel hesitated, and Scotch lifted his fists menacingly.
”I do, sah--I do!” Vallier hastened to say.
”Then that's right,” said Professor Scotch, airily. ”You have escaped the worst thumping you ever received in all your life, and you should congratulate yourself.”