air
clipped so short that it showed the bumps of avarice and other things,
said to reside below the hat-band to the rear. Yet a plausible,
companionable-seeming man. And Zanzibar confers democratic privilege,
as well as fevers; impartiality hovers in the atmosphere as well as
smells, and we neither of us dreamed of hesitating, but followed him
back into the bar--a wide, low-ceilinged room whose beams were two feet
thick of blackened, polished hard wood. There we sat one each side of
him in cane armchairs. He ordered the drinks, and paid for them.

"First I will tell you who I am," he said, when he had swallowed a
foot-long whisky peg and wiped his lips with his coat sleeve. "I never
boast. I don't need to! I am Georges Coutlass! I learned that you
have an English lord among your party, and said I to myself 'Aha!
There is a man who will appreciate me, who am a citizen of three
lands!' Which of you gentlemen is the lord?"

"How can you be a citizen of three countries?" Fred countered.

"Of Greece, for I was born in Greece. I have fought Turks. Ah! I
have bled for Greece. I have spilt my blood in many lands, but the
best was for my motherland!--Of England, for I became naturalized. By
bloody-hell-and-Waterloo, but I admire the English! They have guts,
those English, and I am one of them! By the great horn spoon, yes, I
became an Englishman at Bow Street one Monday morning, price Five
Pounds. I was lined up with the drunks and pick-pockets, and by Jumbo
the magistrate mistook me for a thief! He would have given me six
months without the option in another minute, but I had the good luck to
remember how much money I had paid my witnesses. The thought of paying
that for nothing--worse than nothing, for six months in jail!--in an
English jail!--pick oakum!--eat skilly!--that thought brought me to my
senses. 'By Gassharamminy,' I said, 'I may be mad, but I'm sober! If
it's a crime to desire to be English, then punish me, but let me first
commit the offense!' So he laughed, and didn't question my witnesses
very carefully--one was a Jew, the other an ex-German, and either of
them would swear to anything at half price for a quantity--and they
kissed the Book and committed perjury--and lo and behold, I was English
as you are--English without troubling a midwife or the parson! Five
pounds for the 'beak' at Bow Street--fifty for the
witnesses--fifty-five all told--and cheap at the price! I had money in
those