'Well, I wasn't going to leave the occasion of offence behind me, so I drew a line down the centre of the field from marin stone to marin stone, sent into the surrounding parts and hired a dozen mowers, and in three hours I had that field mown and the grass gathered upon either hand with a space of twelve yards between; and if they like to go back and fight over it now, they can fight: for I'm not going to interfere again. I've had enough of them.'
'And what are you going to get out of all this heroism and astuteness?' I asked.
'I? Oh if it ever comes to the ears of the authorities, I shall get a slating for interfering outside my own district, and I consider I richly deserve it. As it is I have already got out of it a beautiful thirst, that I wouldn't sell for half-a-crown. Give us another drink, old man.'
'And how much of that story is true?' I asked, 'and how much is your tropical imagination?'
'That,' said he, 'is for you to decide, my boy,' and he deliberately winked his left eye at me.
A NIGHTMARE CLIMB
'No, I like you very much, but there can never be anything of that kind between us.'
'I expected this. But I think you are very foolish,' replied the young man slowly, twisting his moustache.
The girl was too astonished at this superior way of taking a rejection to say anything. It was beyond her experience entirely.