Unless he could persuade another human being to do something with him--no matter what--he would joyfully have played cat's cradle with me by the hour--he sat in awful boredom meditating on his liver.
"I'm not going to the theatre," I said, "and I wish I could ask you to accompany me on my adventure." The Colonel raised his eyebrows.

I laughed.
"I'm not going to twang guitars under balconies." The Colonel reddened and swore he had never thought of such a thing.

He was a perjured villain; but I did not tell him so.
"In what my adventure will consist I can't say," I remarked.
"If you're going to fool about Algiers at night you'd better carry a revolver." I told him I did not possess such deadly weapons.

He offered to lend me one.

The two Misses Bostock from South Shields, who sat at the table within earshot and had been following our conversation, manifested signs of excited interest.
"I shall be quite protected," said I, "by the dynamic qualities of your acquaintance, Professor Anastasius Papadopoulos, with whom I have promised to spend the evening." "You had better have the revolver," said the Colonel.