"Come, Hedrick," repeated his mother, setting a gently urgent hand
on his shoulder.

"I won't," said the boy impatiently, shaking her off and growing
suddenly very wideawake and determined. "I won't move a step till
he tells me what they fought about. Not a step!"

"Well--it was about a `show.' We were only boys, you know--younger
than you, perhaps."

"A circus?"

"A boy-circus he and my brother got up in our yard. I wasn't in
it."

"Well, what did you fight about?"

"I thought Val Corliss wasn't quite fair to my brother. That's
all."

"No, it isn't! How wasn't he fair?"

"They sold tickets to the other boys; and I thought my brother
didn't get his share."

"This Corliss kept it all?"

"Oh, something like that," said Lindley, laughing.

"Probably I was in the wrong."