"Vot's der matter mit you?" was the return. "Vy didn't you git out of der vay, ven you see me coming, hey?" The speaker was Carl Stummer, and he was in no humor for wasting words.
"You Dutch idiot!" roared Nickerson. "You bumped into me on purpose!"
"That's what he did," put in Nuggy, who had not liked Carl since the day they had had the talk concerning Gilbert. "Jerry, you ought to teach him a lesson for that."
"I will," answered Jerry; and, as the German soldier arose to his feet, Nickerson strode forward, and gave him a blow in the chest which knocked him up against a near-by railing. "That will teach you to behave yourself in the future."
In his school-days Nickerson had been a good deal of a bully, and this at times cropped out, upon the slightest provocation. As Carl staggered back, Nuggy gave a low laugh.
"Good for you, Jerry! He deserved it," he said.
Carl's face grew as red as a beet; and his eyes—those eyes which were sky-blue, and generally as mild as those of a lamb—flashed fire.
