334 A Golden Opportunity 



the hall and began kicking at my door. If it 

 was the horse, it could give Balaam's ass weight 

 for age and flag him, for presently it said, — 



" I say — you in there — I say-ay ! " 



Only one man on earth was allowed to use 

 that peculiar drawling " I sa-ay " and live, and 

 the sound of it woke me like a splash of cold 

 water. 



" That you, Joe ? Come in ! " I shouted, won- 

 dering meanwhile how the deuce he had got there. 



The door opened, and a brown, foxy face, 

 fringed with grizzly whiskers, was inserted with 

 about the same amount of confidence that a fox 

 would betray while examining a poorly set trap. 



" I say — yotire pretty dom comfortable, ain't 

 you now — I sa-ay — ain't you now ? I say, I 

 seed the guv'nor outside, an' he told me to come 

 up — I sa-ay, he told me to come up. Get up 

 out of that, you lazy devil ! — I say, get up out of 

 that ! " 



A curious, but a rare good, fellow was Joe, and 

 a mighty hunter withal. Some vague number of 

 years before he had been smitten, in England, 

 with a peculiar, sometimes contagious, disease 

 which he pronounced "powching," but which 

 others pronounced "poaching." 



Born with his full share of sporting blood, 

 which later developed a passion for shooting, the 

 sturdy young Briton also had a useful stock of 



