The way in which that sticky compost of boiled maize went down was absolutely amazing.

The man opposite Dick, in particular, was a human boa-constrictor.

He well-nigh suffocated Dick with suppressed laughter.

He was a great raw-boned savage, with a throat of indiarubber, and went quickly and quietly on swallowing mass after mass with the solemn gravity of an owl.

It mattered not a straw to him that Dick took comparatively small mouthfuls, and nearly choked on them too for want of liquid to wash them down.