This meant that he had finished his own.
"Don't jump like that, dammit," he roared to Stone. "Now, then. If you got 'em all ready, fold 'em up and hand 'em here to the old man. That's it. Never mind the literary flourishes. What we want is meat."
He received the four slips, and with a grave face proceeded to shuffle them together so that they were indistinguishable. Then, with equal gravity, he opened each in turn, read it, folded it up, and calmly put it down again.
"H'm," said H.M.
"So," he added.
"Woof!" said H.M.
"Oh, lord-love-a-duck," he breathed.
"Can you do barnyard noises, too?" inquired Evelyn with restraint. "You know, old boy, if you don't read those out and tell us what's what, you'll be assaulted. I can't stand this much longer."
"Well… now," said H.M. He inspected her with a sort of lowering mirth. "I was just thinking what nasty suspicious minds you people got. You know, after we finished with these papers, they'd better be torn up in little pieces. They're awful libellous. Burn me, I never did see so many Look here. There are four of you, and each of you has written down a different name."
At this point Stone grew angry.