"
"Spontaneously?" he demanded, and in spite of the unevadible severity
of his voice the expression of his nearer eye deviated somewhat.
"The spoken and conclusive word of the first was that it was his
intention to commit to this one's keeping everything which he had; the
assertion of the second being that with this scrip I received all that
he possessed."
"While of yours, what did they get, Mr. Quack?" and the tone of the
one who spoke had a much more gratifying modulation than before, while
the attitudes of those who stood around had favourably changed, until
they now conveyed a message of deliberate esteem.
"A serpent-skin case of two enclosures," I replied. "On the one side
was a handcount of the small copper-pieces of this Island, which I had
caused to be burnished and gilt for the purpose of taking back to
amuse those of Yuen-ping. On the other side were two or three pages
from a gravity-removing printed leaf entitled 'Bits of Tits,' with
which this person weekly instructs himself in the simpler rudiments of
the language. For the rest the case was controlled by a hidden spring,
and inscribed about with a charm against loss, consumption by fire, or
being secretly acquired by the unworthy."
"I don't think you stand in much need of that charm, Mr. Quack,"
remarked another of more than ordinary rank, who was also present.
"Then they really got practically no money from you?"
"By no means," I admitted.
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