by the roadside it would be my turn to have the best of the argufying."

"I dare say--I dare say, my good fellow."

"Fellow not me!--I won't be fellowed now. I say I have the best of it
here--man to man--I am your match."

But why quarrel with me?" said the banker, coaxingly; "I never meant you
harm, and I am sure you cannot mean me harm."

"No!--and why?" asked Darvil, coolly;--" why do you think I can mean you
no harm?"

"Because your annuity depends on me."

"Shrewdly put--we'll argufy that point. My life is a bad one, not worth
more than a year's purchase; now, suppose you have more than forty
pounds about you--it may be better worth my while to draw my knife
across your gullet than to wait for the quarter-day's ten pounds a time.
You see it's all a matter of calculation, my dear, Mr. What's-your-name!"

"But," replied the banker, and his teeth began to chatter, "I have not
forty pounds about me."

"How do I know that?--you say so. Well, in the town yonder your word
goes for more than mine; I never gainsaid you when you put that to me,
did I? But here, by the haystack, my word is better than yours; and if
I say you must and shall have forty pounds about you, let's see whether
you dare contradict me."