“I shall. Of course, I understand that you only did your duty. Have a little whisky before you go.”
“Thank you, sir. I don’t touch spirits as a rule.”
“Then make this an exception.”
There was a bottle and some glasses on the table. He poured something out of the bottle into one of the glasses. Adding what seemed water from a jug, he handed it to me. I doubt if at that time I had drunk whisky half-a-dozen times in my life; but I thought I would have a taste just then, if only to do honour to a toast which I kept to myself – the health of a certain young gentleman, not to speak of his mother. But hardly had I touched the stuff with my lips when I put the glass back again upon the table. It was that bitter – I had never tasted anything like it.
“What’s wrong?” he asked.
“I don’t know wha
