Lancy swings, and looks at the clock.

"'It's half-past ten, Jim Faddo,' said he, 'and aw've got an hour an' a
half to deal wi' you as a Lincolnshire lad. At twelve o'clock aw'm the
Gover'ment's, but till then aw'm Lancy Doane, free to strike or free to
let alone; to swallow dirt or throw it; to take a lie or give it. And now
list to me; aw'm not goin' to eat dirt, and aw'm goin' to give you the
lie, and aw'm goin' to break your neck, if I swing for it to-morrow, Jim
Faddo. And here's another thing aw'll tell you. When the clock strikes
twelve, on the best horse in the country aw'll ride to Theddlethorpe,
straight for the well that's dug you know where, to find your smuggled
stuff, and to run the irons round your wrists. Aw'm dealin' fair wi' you
that never dealt fair by no man. You never had an open hand nor soft
heart; and because you've made money, not out o' smugglin' alone, but out
o' poor devils of smugglers that didn't know rightly to be rogues, you
think to fling your dirt where you choose. But aw'll have ye to-night as
a man, and aw'll have ye to-night as a King's officer, or aw'll go damned
to hell.'

"Then he steps back a bit very shiny in the face, and his eyes like
torchlights, but cool and steady. 'Come on now,' he says, 'Jim Faddo,
away from the Book-in-Hand, and down to the beach under the sand-hills,
and we'll see man for man--though, come to think of it, y 'are no man,'
he said--'if ye'll have the right to say when aw'm a King's officer that
you could fling foul words in the face of Lancy Doane. And a word more,'
he says; 'aw wouldn't trust ye if an Angel o' Heaven swore for ye. Take
the knife from the belt behind your back there, and throw it on the
table, for you wouldn't bide by no fair rules o' fightin'. Throw the
knife on the table,' he says, comin' a step forward.