"Don't lie, sir, and tell me that you don't understand; you understand
every word which I have spoken, and you know that it is true."
"Lie?"
"Yes, lie. Look you, sir; I have no wish to fight--"
"You will fight, though, whether you wish it or not," said the youth
with a hysterical laugh, meant to be defiant.
"But--I can snuff a candle; I can split a bullet on a penknife at
fifteen paces."
"Do you mean to frighten us by boasting? We shall see what you can do
when you come on the ground."
"Across a handkerchief: but on no other condition; and, unless you
will accept that condition, I will assuredly, the next time I see you,
be we where we may, treat you as I treated your friend Mr. Trebooze.
I'll do it now! Get out of my shop, sir! What do you want here,
interfering with my honest business?"
And, to the astonishment of Mr. Trebooze's second, Tom vaulted clean
over the counter, and rushed at him open-mouthed.
Sacred be the honour of the gallant West country: but, "both being
friends," as Aristotle has it, "it is a sacred duty to speak the
truth." Mr. Creed vanished through the open door.
"I rid myself of the fellow jollily," said Tom to Frank that day,
after telling him the whole story.
"And no credit to me. I saw from the minute he came in there was no
fight in him."
"But suppose he had accepted--or suppose Trebooze accepts still?"
"There was my game--to frighten him. He'll take care Trebooze shan't
fight, for he knows that he must fight next.
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