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  Ye're very obsairvin',' he managed to say, in a thick voice.

Lynch turned and regarded him benevolently.

You are very modest, Mr. McAdoo,' he replied, genially. 'You really have a noteworthy collection here.'

" 'They were folk not wanted here,' retorted McAdoo, with what I could see was a considerable effort. And then he gathered himself together for a supreme stroke—the one heavily delivered blow of this round; and yet, do you know, Doctor, in spite of the man's overwhelming physical force and ominous aspect, there was something rather ridiculous in his manner of delivering this last menace—something of the lout of a schoolboy who defies his pedagogue, although he half believes that there may be a thrashing behind it; defies him because his nature is too churlish and too abundant in a swinish sort of courage, born of the sense of a potent vitality, to feel the fear of the result, appreciable to a [ 92 ]