Mr. Cuss Interviews the Stranger
Bunting began to laugh.
"There was n't anything there!" said Cuss, his voice running up into a shriek at the "there." "It's all very well for you to laugh, but I tell you I was so startled, I hit his cuff hard, and turned round, and cut out of the room—I left him—"
Cuss stopped. There was no mistaking the sincerity of his panic. He turned round in a helpless way and took a second glass of the excellent vicar's very inferior sherry. "When I hit his cuff," said Cuss, "I tell you, it felt exactly like hitting an arm. And there was n't an arm! There was n't the ghost of an arm!"
Mr. Bunting thought it over. He looked suspiciously at Cuss. "It 's a most remarkable story," he said. He looked very wise and grave indeed. "It 's really," said Mr. Bunting with judicial emphasis, "a most remarkable story."
