'Cos, you see, all this po-liteness of yourn es a'runnin' to waste,"
he explained with fine irony.

But before the next load was more than three-parts hoisted, Caleb's
patience was exhausted. What he did was simple but decisive.
He removed his hold; the handle whizzed violently round, and the
bucket of bricks descended to the hold with a crash.

"Now I tell 'ee straight. Enough's enough; an' I han't got time, at
my time o' life, to be po-lite to ivery red-faced chap I meets.
You can pay me or no, as you likes; but I'm off to get a drink.
An' that's all about et; an' wen 'tes over, 'tes over, as Joan said
by her weddin'."

With this Caleb stepped ashore, spat good-naturedly, put his hands in
his pockets, and went off whistling.

At this moment Mr. Fogo, who had been on the quay long enough to hear
this altercation, touched him softly by the arm.

"You said you were going to have a drink, I believe. May I go with
you? I wish to ask you a few questions."

[Illustration: "You said you were going to have a drink, I believe.
May I go with you?"]

"Sutt'nly, sir," said Caleb with a stifled grin, as he recognised the
hero of the morning. "_I_ generally patronises the 'King o'
Prooshia' for beer. It won't make your hair curl, nor yet prevent
your seein' a hole dro' a ladder: but perhaps neither o' these is
your objec'."

Mr. Fogo, a little bewildered, replied modestly that he pursued
neither of these aims. Caleb led the way across the quay, and they
ascended the steps of the "King of Prussia" together.

"My object," said Mr. Fogo timidly, as they were seated together in
the low-roofed parlour before two foaming mugs--"My object was this.
In the first place, I like your look."

"Same to you, sir," said Caleb, and acknowledged the compliment with
a draught, "though 'tes what my gal said afore she desarted me for a
Rooshan."

"Are you a single man, then?"

"To be sure, sir."

"So much the better--but I will talk of that presently. I, too, am a
single man, with rather peculiar tastes. One of these is solitude.
I had heard of Troy as a place where I was likely to find this,
though my experience of this morning--"

"Never mind, sir. Accidents will happen even in the best reggylated
families. You was took for another, which has happened even to Bible
characters afore this--though Jacob's the only one I can call to mind
just now."

"Still, I should be sorry to go back with the knowledge that my
journ