"We really thought you were going to begin," said one of the crowd.

"Oh no; no indeed; not just yet," said the other.

"It is very disappointing," remarked one.

The man with the knife turned on him and replied with dignity,
"I am really surprised at such a remark after all I have said on the
subject. I do wish you would consider the circumstances of the case.
They are peculiar, for this person--this Martin--is not an ordinary
person. We have been keeping our eyes on him for some time past, and
have witnessed some remarkable actions on his part, to put it mildly.
Let us keep in mind the boldness, the resource, the dangerous
violence he has displayed on so many occasions since he took to his
present vagabond way of life."

"It appears to me," said one of the others, "that if Martin is dead
we need not concern ourselves about his character and desperate
deeds in the past."

"_If_ he is dead!" exclaimed the other sharply. "That is the very
point,--_is_ he dead? Can you confidently say that he is not in a
sound sleep, or in a dead faint, or shamming and ready at the first
touch of the knife to leap up and seize his assailant--I mean his
carver--by the throat and perhaps murder him as he once murdered a
spoonbill?"

"That would be very dreadful," said one.

"But surely," said another, "there are means of telling whether a