The others were like bad little
boys who wouldn't take a dare. But Hume was just right. To see him
lift one of the stone skulls to his lips and grin over it at you,
would make your blood run cold. And bless us and save us, gentlemen,
how he would jeer and snarl and laugh all at the one time. Many's the
time I've listened to poor Morris rave and paint his pictures of what
he was going to do in times to come; and on the other side of the
coffin-table, Hume would urge him on, leerin' and grinnin' like Satan
himself, and making all manner of game of him. Bedad, me gorge rose at
it more than once, and it was all I could do to keep from takin' him
by the scruff of the neck and throwin' him intil the street."
"Almost every man has some spark of good in his nature, however
faint," said Ashton-Kirk. "And Hume may have had one, too, though no
one seems to have discovered it."
Tobin smiled and returned:
"An Irishman always has a good deal of respect for the fighting
strain, no matter if it be in a man, or a beast, or a bird. Old Nick
himself must be a grand, two-handed man, and as such we must give him
credit. And 'twas the same way with this felly Hume. He had real
fighting blood, so he had; and sorra the man ever undertook to impose
on him the second time.
Pages:
219
220
221
222
223
224
225
226
227
228
229
230
231
232
233
234
235
236
237
238
239
240
241
242
243