‘Oh, is it charades?’ said David. ‘Have I got to guess? I bet you I guess. It’s——’
‘Silence!’ said Noah very severely.
He came and sat down at the table, and began turning over the leaves of the book called ‘Female Register.’ Then he took a sip of water and spoke:
‘David Blaize, I believe,’ he said, ‘charged with trespass in the marriage-meadow. Speak up.’
‘I haven’t spoken at all yet,’ said David.
‘Then you’ve got nothing to say for yourself, I suppose?’ said Noah.
A brilliant idea struck David.
‘I’m not in the marriage-meadow now,’ he said. ‘How do you intend to prove I was there at all? It was only you who say you saw me, and you are only a person out of my own ark.’
Noah got up, and opened the door into the meadow. David could hear the pike still calling ‘Coward!’ He was coughing violently, having been so long in the air.
‘Pike!’ shouted Noah. ‘Come in, pike!’