he moved up to me, though he didn't sit down. Schomberg,
however, with a long tumbler in his hand, was making towards us
prudently, and I discovered then the only sign of weakness in Falk. He
had for Schomberg a repulsion resembling that sort of physical fear
some people experience at the sight of a toad. Perhaps to a man so
essentially and silently concentrated upon himself (though he could talk
well enough, as I was to find out presently) the other's irrepressible
loquacity, embracing every human being within range of the tongue, might
have appeared unnatural, disgusting, and monstrous. He suddenly gave
signs of restiveness--positively like a horse about to rear, and,
muttering hurriedly as if in great pain, "No. I can't stand that
fellow," seemed ready to bolt. This weakness of his gave me the
advantage at the very start. "Verandah," I suggested, as if rendering
him a service, and walked him out by the arm. We stumbled over a few
chairs; we had the feeling of open space before us, and felt the fresh
breath of the river--fresh, but tainted. The Chinese theatres across the
water made, in the sparsely twinkling masses of gloom an Eastern town
presents at night, blazing centres of light, and of a distant and
howling uproar. I felt him become suddenly tractable again like an
animal, like a good-tempered horse when the object that scares him is
removed. Yes. I felt in the darkness there how tractable he was, without
my conviction of his inflexibility--tenacity, rather, perhaps--being in
the least weakened. His very arm abandoning itself to my grasp was as
hard as marble--like a limb of iron. But I heard a tumultuous scuffling
of boot-soles within. The unspeakable idiots inside were crowding to the
windows, climbing over each other's backs behind the blinds, billiard
cues and all. Somebody broke a window pane, and with the sound of
falling glass, so suggestive of riot and devastation, Schomberg reeled
out after us in a state of funk which had prevented his parting with his
brandy and soda. He must have trembled like an aspen leaf. The piece of
ice in the long tumbler he held in his hand tinkled with an effect
of chattering teeth. "I beg you, gentlemen," he expostulated thickly.
"Come! Really, now, I must insist..."

How proud I am of my presence of mind! "Hallo," I said instantly in a
loud and naive tone, "somebody's breaking your windows, Schomberg. Would
you please tell one of your boys to bring out here a pack of cards a