As we came up a stalwart Irishman stepped out and asked us what we wanted.
Bates replied: "We have come over to get a watch that one of your fellows took from one of ours, and by -- - we're going to have it." The Irishman's reply was equally explicit though not strictly logical in construction.

Said he: "We havn't got your watch, and be ye can't have it." This joined the issue just as fairly as if it had been done by all the documentary formula that passed between Turkey and Russia prior to the late war.

Bates and the Irishman then exchanged very derogatory opinions of each other, and began striking with their clubs.

The rest of us took this as our cue, and each, selecting as small a N'Yaarker as we could readily find, sailed in.
There is a very expressive bit of slang coming into general use in the West, which speaks of a man "biting off more than he can chew." That is what we had done.

We had taken a contract that we should have divided, and sub-let the bigger half.