Then
he put force in his forearm, and told me to touch it. I felt its swelled
muscle which was hard as the pumic stone in the public bathhouse.
I was deeply impressed by his massive strength, and asked him if he
could not knock five or six of Red Shirt in a bunch. "Of course," he
said, and as he extended and bent back the arm, the lumpy muscle rolled
round and round, which was very amusing. According to the statement of
Porcupine himself, this muscle, if he bends the arm back with force,
would snap a paper-string wound around it twice. I said I might do the
same thing if it were a paper-string, and he challenged me. "No, you
can't," he said. "See if you can." As it would not look well if I
failed, I did not try.
"Say, after you have drunk all you want to-night at the dinner, take a
fall out of Red Shirt and Clown, eh?" I suggested to him for fun.
Porcupine thought for a moment and said, "Not to-night, I guess." I
wanted to know why, and he pointed out that it would be bad for Koga.
"Besides, if I'm going to give it to them at all, I've to get them red
handed in their dirty scheme, or all the blame will be on me," he added
discretely. Even Porcupine seems to have wiser judgment than I.
"Then make a speech and praise Mr.
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