"You say you've come over here to shoot my dog.

If ever anyone shoots Lad, I'll be the man to do it.

And I'll have to have lots better reason for it than--" "Go ahead, then!" vouchsafed the constable, fishing out a rusty service pistol from his coat-tail pocket.

"Go ahead and do it yourself, then; if you'd rather.

It's all one to me, so long's it's done." With sardonic politeness, he proffered the bulky weapon.