"`I believe he would have kissed my hands," said Jim, savagely, "and, next moment, he starts foaming and whispering in my face, `If I had the time I would like to crack your skull for you.' I pushed him away. Suddenly he caught hold of me round the neck. Damn him! I hit him. I hit out without looking. `Won't you save your own life--you infernal coward?' he sobs. Coward! He called me an infernal coward! Ha! ha! ha! ha! He called me--ha! ha! ha! . . ."

`He had thrown himself back and was shaking with laughter. I had never in my life heard anything so bitter as that noise. It fell like a blight on all the merriment about donkeys, pyramids, bazaars, or what not. Along the whole dim length of the gallery the voices dropped, the pale blotches of faces turned our way with one accord, and the silence became so profound that the clear tinkle of a teaspoon falling on the tessellated floor of the veranda rang out like a tiny and silvery scream.

"`You mustn't laugh like this, with all these people about," I remonstrated. "It isn't nice for them, you know."

`He gave no sign of having heard at first, but after a while, with a stare that, missing me altogether, seemed to probe the heart of some awful vision, he muttered carelessly: "Oh! they'll think I am drunk."

`And after that you would have thought from his appearance he would never make a sound again. But no fear! He could no more stop telling now than he could have stopped living by the mere exertion of his will.'


  By PanEris using Melati.

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