"Rather!"

"Well, I svallowed all there vos in the bottle ... and I ain't dead, it seems."

Jim surveyed the empty jar, and found it to be the mislabelled vessel in which he kept his whisky safe from Mrs Brown's thirsty raids.

"You're a foolish old man!" said Jim. "Never you try on any trick of that sort again--d'you hear?"

"Vy didn't it kill me?" inquired the dealer in an aggrieved voice.

"Because what you drank wasn't poison--luckily for you."

"Vould it have been enough if it had been p'ison?"

"Yes, enough to kill an elephant."

Old Harris shuddered.

"Vould it have hurt?" he asked.