"Then, that's why."
"You see, I cannot put my ringer on the brute."
"He has you in a cleft stick. Who knows that better than Acton?"
"I'm going to thrash Jack, the little idiot. I distinctly told him to give Acton a wide berth."
"Jack, of course, is an idiot; but Acton is the fellow that wants the thrashing."
Phil pondered over this for fully five minutes.
"You're right, old man, and I'll give—I'll try to give—him the thrashing he deserves."
"Big biz," said I. "You say you aren't as good as Hodgson; Hodgson isn't in the same street as Acton; ergo, you aren't in the same parish."
"That's your beastly logic, Carr. Does a good cause count for nothing?"
"Not for much, when you're dealing with sharps."