Dig mused a bit, and then replied, “I should think it was a little queer.”
“Of course you would! So it is a little queer,” said Arthur, winking knowingly at his future brother-in-law. “Now, could you reach up to the top of that ledge, my little man?”
“You be blowed!” responded the baronet, who resented this style of address.
“That means you couldn’t. When you’re about four feet higher than you are you’ll be able to do it. Now could the prisoner reach up to it?”
“No, no more could you, with your boots and three-and-sixpenny Sunday tile on!”
“Order in the court! Really, your lordship, your lordship ought to sit on this chap. Perhaps your lordship’s friend on your lordship’s right would kindly give him a hundred lines when next he comes across him. Now, Mr Baron, and Squire, and Knight of the Shire, and all the rest of it, I want to know if there’s any chap in our house—I mean the boiler-shop—could reach up there? Mind your eye, now!”
“Ainger could by jumping.”
“I didn’t ask you anything about jumping, you duffer! How tall would a chap need to be to reach up there?”
“About double your measure—over six foot.”
“There you are! Now is there any chap in our boiler-shop over six feet?”