"Whereabouts?"

"In Maine."

"Oh, come now; you can't play that on me. You're a Britisher."

Mr. Smith colored a little and looked rather vexed.

"Doesn't it strike you, my friend," he said, "that you are a trifle inquisitive?"

"It's my way."

"Then all I have to say is that it is a mighty unpleasant way, and I don't like it for a cent."

"Is that so?"

"Yes."

"Then you can lump it," replied Dan Markham, lighting a cigar and staring him in the face.