"Because she's unsound, unsafe, im—"
"Be careful!" he cried.
I shrugged but was silent, I think, from the fear of Jerry's fists which were clenching his rod and creel ominously.
"She's the woman I love," he declared with pathetic drama.
I braved the fists and laughed.
"Tush!" I said.
He was furious. For a moment I thought he was going to strike me. Had he done so I should have been ended there and then, and this interesting history brought to an untimely conclusion on the very eve of its most interesting disclosures.
But he thought better of it and with a shaking forefinger pointed toward the path downstream. "Go, Roger," he said in a trembling voice, "please go."