Little they knew the mettle of their man! Maurice swallowed once; he
swallowed twice--and thrice--and he continued to swallow! No Adam's
apple was sculptured on that juvenile throat, but the internal progress
of the liquid was not a whit the less visible. His eyes gleamed with
cunning and malicious triumph, sidewise, at the stunned conspirators;
he was fulfilling the conditions of the draught, not once breaking the
thread of that marvelous swallering.

His audience stood petrified. Already Maurice had swallowed more than
they had given Duke and still the liquor receded in the uplifted bottle!
And now the clear glass gleamed above the dark contents full half the
vessel's length--and Maurice went on drinking! Slowly the clear glass
increased in its dimensions--slowly the dark diminished.

Sam Williams made a horrified movement to check him--but Maurice
protested passionately with his disengaged arm, and made vehement vocal
noises remindful of the contract; whereupon Sam desisted and watched the
continuing performance in a state of grisly fascination.

Maurice drank it all! He drained the last drop and threw the bottle in
the air, uttering loud ejaculations of triumph and satisfaction.

"Hah!" he cried, blowing out his cheeks, inflating his chest, squaring
his shoulders, patting his stomach, and wiping his mouth contentedly.
"Hah! Aha! Waha! Wafwah! But that was good!"

The two boys stood looking at him in stupor.

"Well, I gotta say this," said Maurice graciously: "You stuck to your
bargain all right and treated me fair."