"Now," he said, "did you or did you not arrange those seven fights?"
He had a lot of witnesses present and so I said—
"Five of them I arranged, because I wanted to see if——"
He interrupted me.
"You go about asking chaps if they give one another 'best,' and when they say 'no,' though they may be perfectly friendly, you go on at them till you work up a fight."
I denied it, and he said, "You can reserve your beastly defence for the court-martial. I've only got one more question to ask you at present, namely, Have you ever fought anybody yourself?"
And I said—
"No, Trelawny, I never have, because it would be contrary to my opinions."
Then he merely said I was a sticky and noxious worm that wanted poisoning with rat poison, and that nothing more need be said before the court-martial.
II