He took a cigar from his pocket.

"Smoke ?" he asked.
I was a confirmed smoker, but I was not going to smoke one of his cigars--not then.
"No thank you," said I.He did not comment on my refusal, but lit the cigar himself, from the stump of his former one.

Then he crossed his legs and proceeded, with characteristic abruptness, to his subject.
"Paine," he began, "you own this land next to me, you say.

Your property ends at the fence this side of that road we just crossed, doesn't it ?" "It ends where yours begins," I announced.
"Yes.

Just this side of that road." "Of the Shore Lane.