What?  The laconic and naive Rusty grunts…

Mara makes a great point, but in Rusty’s world, everyone is an “Old Friend,” and by extension that included Becky.  But readers of this strip (even in its current incarnation) would have recognized that Becky was no good…  Sort in the Mata Hari sense of the word…

But again, Rusty also jumps to the conclusion that Professor What’s-his-Name is not in on this scam…  Rusty, it is possible that even “Old Friends” can be crooks…