. . . Now then, watch me leave a blue streak behind!"



CHAPTER VII--SOLDIER BOY AND SHEKELS



"Did you do as I told you? Did you look up the Mexican Plug?"

"Yes, I made his acquaintance before night and got his friendship."

"I liked him. Did you?"

"Not at first. He took me for a reptile, and it troubled me,
because I didn't know whether it was a compliment or not. I
couldn't ask him, because it would look ignorant. So I didn't say
anything, and soon liked him very well indeed. Was it a
compliment, do you think?"

"Yes, that is what it was. They are very rare, the reptiles; very
few left, now-a-days."

"Is that so? What is a reptile?"

"It is a plantigrade circumflex vertebrate bacterium that hasn't
any wings and is uncertain."

"Well, it--it sounds fine, it surely does."