Page:Barr--Stranleighs millions.djvu/265

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THE EARL AT PLAY
253

and throw mud on her clothes and on her picture must have been an heroic soul thus recklessly to challenge a girl's anger."

"What's that got to do with you?" said a great, hulking brute, whose hands were black with mud^ circumstantial evidence, at least, that he was the perpetrator of the excellent joke.

The bargee made use of several sanguinary expressions, and then returned to his original question, "What's that got to do with you?"

Meanwhile he wiped the mud off his huge paws on to his trousers, lowered his head, and took a threatening step forward, while Lord Stranleigh was daintily peeling off his gloves.

"I say," whispered the Professor, "don't let us get into a street row. These men have been drinking. We must escort the girl away and let it go at that."

"There are various kinds of science," said Stranleigh. "You are master of one branch, and I of another. You can floor me with your intellect, but you can't with your fists. Just let this chap and me settle our differences our own way."

"I arsk you," said the bargeman in louder and more truculent tones, "what's this got to do with you?"

"Sir, you deserve an answer," said Stranleigh with great gentleness. "Any thing's got to do with me that I interfere in. Understand? I've