Page:Arthur Stringer - Twin Tales.djvu/156

146 the habit of accepting things, just as one accepts cinnamon-toast from the footman, or a trip across the Hudson from the ferry-boat, without being actively conscious of any human obligation. That man had made himself unbearably offensive to me, and I asked you to punch his nose for me, without remembering the risks it involved, without appreciating the danger I was bringing"

"Risks!" cried Gunboat, with a derisive hoot, finally arriving at a definite idea in what seemed a morass of abstractions. "Where's the risks in standin' up to a big stiff like that?"

"I'm afraid I wasn't thinking of the risks to you," Teddie rather wearily explained. "I was rather selfishly remembering the risks to myself."

"Well, yuh ain't suffered none from it, have yuh?" derided her still indignant-eyed cross-examiner.

"I've just paid Raoul Uhlan twenty-five thousand dollars as compensation for his injuries," explained Teddie, as coolly as she was able.