“Oh, sit down and take it coolly,” the stranger replied, laughing. “Don’t stand there gaping like a half-stuck pig. Know you, of course I know you.”
“Then, sir, if you do, you know me to be a gentleman—an administrator of justice.”
“I know you to be a d—d old thief, the biggest liar, and, at a pinch, the biggest coward in all London,” the stranger replied.
“Thief! liar! coward!” gasped Bates, whipping out his sword. “If you are a man, defend yourself.”
“If you are not a fool, sit down; you can’t frighten me. I’m too old a bird for that.”
This quarrel had now thoroughly aroused Captain Jack’s party, who were noisy and boisterous; but they did not interfere, for they imagined that Bates was more than a match for the stranger.
“Draw, I say!” growled Bates, “or I’ll slay ye like a dog! Clear the way, there, comrades; leave this impudent rascal to me.”
“Sit down, or I’ll knock your head off!” was the cool reply.
Bates, all furious and maddened at the stranger’s calmness, made a fierce lunge at him.
The instant he did so, however, the stranger fired a pistol, and knocked the large wart from the tip of Bates’s nose, and next instant gave him such a smack on the jaw as laid that hero sprawling on the floor.