"Ye do, do ye?"
"Most fervently!"
"An' 'cause why?"
"Because I happen to be that cove," I answered.
"Oh!" said the Pedler, eyeing me more narrowly; "you are, are ye?"
"I am!"
"Yet you ain't got w'ite 'ands."
"They were white once," said I.
"An' I don't see as your ways is soft—nor yet takin'!"
"None the less, I am that cove!"