Then I observed what I have frequently observed before, that a man who is but reasonably afraid of an altercation with an alien has a most poignant dread of the operations of foreign law. The doctor's voice was flute-like in its exquisite politeness, as he answered: "But I've given you a very great deal of money fif-three pounds, I think." "An' what's three pound for poisonin' the likes o' me?