“Won’t you try?”
“Thanks; I think I should rather like,” said Edwards, who began to feel ambitious, “but I have not got anything to smoke.”
“Oh, Slam will let you have a pipe, or a cigar if you like it better.”
Edwards, calling to mind that cigars smelt nicer than pipes, thought he should prefer one.
“Slam, my friend wants a cigar.”
“Well, sir, as you know, I can’t sell such things without a licence; but if the gent likes to have a few rats for one of the dawgs to show a bit of sport, I’ll give him a cigar with pleasure. It’s sixpence for half a dozen.”
“And, by the by, Edwards, it is usual to stand some beer to pay your footing. A couple of quarts of sixpenny will do.”
“That will make eighteenpence altogether,” responded Edwards cheerfully, producing that sum.
“I’ll send out for the beer at once,” said Mr Slam, taking the money and going towards the house.
Where he sent to is a mystery, for there was no public-house within a mile, and yet the can of beer arrived in about five minutes. It is much to be feared that Slam set the excise law at defiance when he felt perfectly safe from being informed against.