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 didn't. Wish I had a drink. No, it wasn't courage on your part, … or lying it out … just the truth. I felt that … because I'd put you in a blue funk."

"You'd not!" cried Owen, disdainfully.

"Then why, to be precise, are you trying to rip down the curtain?"

For the first time, Owen was aware that his hand, raised and full of torn mosquito-gauze, was trembling violently.

"Don't attempt lying," advised the big man, with a contemptuous chuckle. "You can't. Rum things, these words of honour." He snapped the chain back on his watch, stood musing, then added with a note of wonder: "My word, I've seen them make a man act against his own interest—mind you, his own interest. Funny things.…"

He pondered again, shaking his cropped head.