Part 45 (2/2)

”You'd like to make me drunk, now, wouldn't you?” said he, tossing off a large tumbler of red wine. ”Don't be ridiculous, my fine fellow! who ever saw _me_ drunk?”

”_I_ have,” smiled Mr. Kenihazy from his place at the card-table; ”I've seen you as drunk as David's sow!”

”Who did?” cried Mr. Skinner.

Zatonyi, who, leaning on his elbows, watched Mr. Catspaw shuffling the cards, raised his head at the sound of the judge's shrill voice, and observed that, after all, the day's business was neatly done.

”This is my sixteenth case,” added he; ”and, somehow or other, we always managed to do for somebody.”

”_Nihil ad rem!_” cried Mr. Skinner; ”it's this man I want to ask.”

”_Nihil ad rem_, indeed!” hiccoughed Zatonyi, ”are not we in court-martial a.s.sembled? It is provided that the court shall sit until the sentence has been executed.”

”Fiddlesticks! it's nothing _ad rem_, I tell you! I want to ask Kenihazy!”

”Oh, fiddlesticks! eh?” cried the a.s.sessor, striking the table with his fist, ”when I say--eh, what did I want to say? yes, that's it, that's no fiddlesticks! Consider, _domine spectabilis_, to whom you're speaking, and where you are; I say, sir, lie prostrate in the face of the sanct.i.ty of the place; for, sir, this is a court-martial!”

Mr. Skinner became more and more impatient.

Kalman, who hoped that a quarrel between them would serve his purposes better than the heaviest Tokay, nodded approvingly to Zatonyi, who went on, to the great annoyance of Mr. Skinner, though doubtless very much to his own satisfaction.

”This is not a place for your frivolous jokes, sir--frivolous, I say, sir; and make the most of it, if you please! Up to the criminal's execution, we sit as a court-martial--all the time, sir, without intermission, without--fiddlesticks! It is provided in the articles, chapter four thousand five hundred and twenty-four, that we are to eat in court-martial, sir, and we play at Tarok in court-martial, sir, and we----”

”Cease your row!” snarled the justice.

”I will make a row! And I must make a row, and I'm ent.i.tled to make a row, and I'd like to see the man who'd prevent me from making a row!

I'm as much of an a.s.sessor as any man in the county!”

The Baron had meanwhile studied his cards. He was prepared to come out strong, and he urged them to continue the game; but neither Mr. Skinner nor Kenihazy would listen to him, for Kalman did his utmost to excite them still more. Mr. Skinner fancied he saw a sneer on Volgyeshy's lips, which he could not ascribe to any thing but the doubts which it was evident that hated person entertained of his a.s.sertion, that he, Paul Skinner, would drink three gla.s.ses to Mr. Kenihazy's one, and remain sober into the bargain.

”Don't boast!” said Kalman. ”I'll never believe you.”

”You won't?”

”No, indeed! I'll back Kenihazy against anybody.”

”You will, will you? I say two cows to my greyhound.”

”Done! Your greyhound is mangy; but I don't care. I am sure to win.”

”Done, I say! Hand us the gla.s.ses.”

Kalman could scarcely repress a smile of triumph, while Mr. Catspaw moved heaven and earth to prevent the bet; but Kenihazy laughed, and emptied his gla.s.s, the valorous judge followed his lead with three gla.s.ses, and the game was continued, though rather more noisily than before.

While Kalman was thus occupied in settling the masters, Janosh imitated his example with signal success in the servants' hall; indeed so strenuous were his attacks upon the general sobriety, that scarcely one of the haiduks and peasants was left to whom an impartial observer would have awarded the laurels of abstinence.

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