Page:The Steel Flea.djvu/93

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THE STEEL FLEA

in gloves, and, of course, they did so here, also."

The left-handed man said nothing, but all at once he began to get uneasy and bored. He pined, and pined, and said to the Englishmen: "I thank you sincerely for all your hospitality, and I am very content here with you, and all that it was necessary for me to see I have seen, and now I desire to return home as speedily as possible."

They could by no means detain him longer. It was impossible to let him go home by land, because he did not know all the languages, and it was not good to sail upon the sea, because it was the autumn season, and stormy; but he insisted: "Let me go."

"We have looked at the buremeter,"[1] they said. "There is going to be a storm—you may be drowned:

  1. By this twist of pronunciation the word becomes "storm-meter."

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