And with that he turned to the peaceable lot with his usual urbanity.
'Ram-ram, gents. I done you no 'arm, and you done me no 'arm. That's as it should be. So good afternoon. Salaam alackoom!--Now then, sir, you come along to my diggin's an' get your pants.'
But as they hurried off to the Strangers' Home, he shook his head gravely.
'If it hadn't bin for my bein' in a surplus chore seven year, and so knowin'
"Lord a' mercy"
to the Ten Commandments, and my dooty to my neighbour, you'd never a wore breeches agin, sir, for I wouldn't never ave come back to them steps with a prick in my conshinse, sir, for fear as there was more in them dress pants than meets the eye, as the sayin' is; though why the nation, savin' your presence, sir, you come to took 'em off, beats me!'
Chris told him. Told him the whole story, as he might not, perhaps, have told a better man, and John Ellison listened decorously, respectfully. It was not till Chris, attired in the fateful garments, with his subordinate's white uniform coat superadded and the devotee's shawl twined as a turban (since it had not been deemed feasible to recover the rest of the dress-suit that night), was ready to return to civilisation, that John Ellison ventured on a parting remark.
'It's the onsartainty, sir, that does the mischief. Beer's beer, an' whisky's whisky. It's when you come to mixin' 'em that you dun'no where you are. It taste beastly to begin with, and then it don't make a chap, so to speak, punctooal drunk. So it throws 'im out o' reckonin', and makes 'im onsartin--an' that don't work in
"Hinjia's coral strand."'