"Very well, Gunga Dass," I replied; "to the first terms I cheerfully agree,
but, as there is nothing on earth to prevent my killing you as you sit here
and taking everything that you have" (I thought of the two invaluable crows at
the time), "I flatly refuse to give you my boots and shall take whichever den
I please."
The stroke was a bold one, and I was glad when I saw that it had succeeded.
Gunga Dass changed his tone immediately, and disavowed all intention of asking
for my boots. At the time it did not strike me as at all strange that I, a
Civil Engineer, a man of thirteen years' standing in the Service, and, I
trust, an average Englishman, should thus calmly threaten murder and violence
against the man who had, for a consideration it is true, taken me under his
wing. I had left the world, it seemed, for centuries. I was as certain then as
I am now of my own existence, that in the accursed settlement there was no law
save that of the strongest; that the living dead men had thrown behind them
every canon of the world which had cast them out; and that I had to depend for
my own life on my strength and vigilance alone. The crew of the ill-fated
Mignonette are the only men who would understand my frame of mind.
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