"'However cud 'ee have said that, Tom?' blurted out Billy, reproachfully. 'He never seed the river on fire, but what we did see was waggon and waggon-loads of fish carted away with burnt fins and tails.'
"'And they would have been taken from the burning river?'
"'I do not doubt it; but, mind, I dedn't zee it,' said Billy, with the air of a martyr to the truth.
"The gentleman, no longer able to contain himself, sent Tom and Billy down to the kitchen, and gave them the best 'blaw out' they had on the journey. And, when they left, he told them, by way of compliment, that they were 'real Cornish diamonds, and the best pair of liars' he had ever known.
"And they were hard to beat," said Mr. Square-set.
