"So he leads me to imagine."
"The nerve would want killing."
"Quite so, and to attend to its wants I'm here."
"I'd take eight shillings to kill the nerve."
"Would you use them as an apparatus to execute it?"
"Then I'd take twelve or thirteen shillings to fill it," he continued.
I was interested in the uniqueness of his methods.
"Would you purpose to powder the shillings or use them whole—I would have thought an alligator's or shark's tooth would scarcely require that quantity of material?"
Mr Messre stared at me in a dazed manner.
"I wouldn't touch the tooth under that," he continued.