But at this juncture the tiresome old boatman lifted up his voice once more.

“See that high cliff, gentlemens?  Funny thing happen there, very funny.  Dam-fool foreigner here, he collect flowers.  Always collecting flowers on bad rocks; sometimes with rope round him, for fear of falling; with rope, ha, ha, ha!  Nasty man.  And poor.  No money at all.  He always say, ’All Italians liars, and liars where go?  To Hell, sure.  That’s where liars go.  That’s where Italians go.’  Now rich man he say liar to poor man.  But poor man, he better not say liar to rich man.  That so, gentlemens.  One day he say liar to nice old Italian.  Nice old man think:  ‘Ah, you wait, putrid puppy of bastard pig, you wait.’  Nice old man got plenty good lot vineyards back of cliff there.  One day he walk to see grapes.  Then he look to end of cliff and see rope hanging.  Very funny, he think.  Then he look to end of rope and see nasty-man hanging.  That so, gentlemens.  Nasty-man hanging in air.  Can’t get up.  ’Pull me up,’ says he.  Nice old man, he laugh—­ha, ha, ha! laugh till his belly hurt.  Then he pull out knife and begin to cut rope.  ‘See knife?’ he shout down.  ‘How much to pull up?’ Five hundred dollar!  ‘How much?’ Five thousand!  ‘How much?’ Fifty thousand!  Nice old man say quite quiet:  ’You no got fifty thousand in the world, you liar.  Liars where go?  To Hell, sure.  That’s where liars go.  That’s where you go, Mister.  To Hell.’  And he cut rope.  Down he go, patatrac! round and round in air, like firework wheel, on to first rock—­pa-pa-pa-paff!  Six hundred feets.  After that he arrive, all messy, in water.  That so, gentlemens.  Gone where to?  Swim to Philadelphia?  I don’t think!  Him drownded, sure.  Ha, ha, ha!  Nice old man, when he come home that morning, he laugh.  He laugh.  He just laugh.  He laugh first quiet, then loud.  He laugh all the time, and soon family too.  He laugh for ten days, till he nearly die.  Got well again, and live plenty good years after.  In Paradise to-day, God rest his soul!  And never found out, no never.  Fine judge on Nepenthe.  Always fine judge here.  He know everything, and he know nothing.  Understand?  All nice people here.  That so, gentlemens.”

He told the tale with Satanic gusto, rocking himself to and fro as though convulsed with some secret joy.  Then, after expectorating violently, he resumed the oars which had been dropped in the heat of gesticulation.

The bishop was pensive.  There was something wrong with this story—­something fundamentally wrong.  He turned to Keith: 

“That man must be a liar too.  If, as he says, the thing was never found out, how can he have learnt all about it?”

“Hush, my dear fellow.  He thinks I don’t know, but I do.  It was his own father to whom the adventure occurred.”

“The adventure?” said Mr. Heard.

“The adventure.  Surely you are not going to make a tragedy of it?  If you cannot see the joke of that story, you must be hard to please.  I nearly died of laughing when I first heard it.”