"By law he was given back to you."
"You have brought him up."
"You found him again when I lost him."
"Yes, by means of an art which you taught him."
"Gentlemen, gentlemen," interposed the doctor, advancing, "what is all this fuss?"
"Why," began Captain Barker, "I was proposing that, for the future, we should take equal shares in the superintendence of Tristram's education; and he won't listen to it."
"Certainly I won't," Captain Runacles assented stoutly.
The doctor looked from one to the other with a good-humoured smile.
"And why won't you?" he asked, addressing Captain Jemmy.
"Why won't I? Because, as you are aware—for you were present—we once cast the dice over this boy, and Jack won."