"I don't want any dagger," Sam protested, advancing. "I want that revolaver. It's my father's revolaver, ain't it?"
"Well, _wait_ a minute, can't you? I got a right to show you the way I _do_, first, haven't I?" Penrod began an improvization on the spot. "Say I'm comin' along after dark like this--look, Sam! And say you try to make a jump at me----"
"I won't!" Sam declined this rôle impatiently. "I guess it ain't your father's revolaver, is it?"
"Well, it may be _your_ father's but it ain't yours," Penrod argued, becoming logical. "It ain't either's of us revolaver, so I got as much right----"
"_Watch_, can't you--just a minute!" Penrod urged vehemently. "I'm not goin' to keep it, am I? You can have it when I get through, can't you? Here's how _I_ do: I'm comin' along after dark, just walkin' along this way--like this--look, Sam!"
Penrod, suiting the action to the word, walked to the other end of the room, swinging the revolver at his side with affected carelessness.
"I'm just walkin' along like this, and first I don't see you," continued the actor. "Then I kind of get a notion sumpthing wrong's liable to happen, so I---- No!" He interrupted himself abruptly. "No; that isn't it. You wouldn't notice that I had my good ole revolaver with me. You wouldn't think I had one, because it'd be under my coat like this, and you wouldn't see it." Penrod stuck the muzzle of the pistol into the waistband of his knickerbockers at the left side and, buttoning his jacket, sustained the weapon in concealment by pressure of his elbow. "So you think I haven't got any; you think I'm just a man comin' along, and so you----"
Sam advanced. "Well, you've had your turn," he said. "Now, it's mine. I'm goin' to show you how I----"
"_Watch_ me, can't you?" Penrod wailed. "I haven't showed you how _I_ do, have I? My goodness! Can't you watch me a minute?"
"I _have_ been! You said yourself it'd be my turn soon as you----"
"My goodness! Let me have a _chance_, can't you?" Penrod retreated to the wall, turning his right side toward Sam and keeping the revolver still protected under his coat. "I got to have my turn first, haven't I?"
"Anyway," said Sam decidedly, clutching him by the right shoulder and endeavoring to reach his left side--"anyway, I'm goin' to have it now."