"You still keep a bottle down there?" Lasky shouted out, and Evan toasted the laughter with a sip from his glass.
"That's beside the point." A ripple of laughter spread. "You can go find hoofprints," he told Lasky, and the crowd nodded knowingly.
"You can go find leprechaun gold, more likely," I couldn't help but say, and laughter rippled again. "But go on, please."
Evan glared at the crowd, then drained his pint glass. "I'm pretty thirsty, though," he protested. "I think the perpetrator--" and his eyes bored into Lasky's--" "--should be the benefactor of a conciliatory libation..."
And thus Evan dissuaded criticism, and thus time was lost while money was wrung from the skinflint Lasky and more cider was provided. Again Evan drank half his mug, and again he set it on the bar.
"I'm out there, right, and all these dogs go by a-barkin', then horses go by, almost a knockin me down and sprayin mud into me face, and they all go right over the wall. It was a bunch o those ruddy nobles, looked like a hundred of 'em all tearing after this one poor fox. I was hidin', you know, 'cause we all know: you mess with nobles you get hurt." I found myself among the ones murmuring agreement. But then there's this..." Evan trailed off for a moment and got a dazed and somehow supremely happy look. "...this woman," he resumed. "She's got a horse about six times too big for her, and I could tell she could ride for shit, which isn't so bad. But the horse knew it too, she was in trouble. This big horse comes riding up to the fence right where the gate is, where the wall stops? And just stopped. And there's this..." He trailed off, then resumed again, as if he was remembering something important, "this beautiful girl, a hunting girl, on top of this horse with a ridin' crop, she gets down ad starts beatin' him to within an inch of his life." We all had a laugh about the strange ways of the silly nobles. "Well, I was feelin' sorry for the horse by now, and I stepped out of the bushes, thinking, how do I get her attention off beating her horse to death without letting her know I saw her. So, I slip behind a tree, jump over the wall, walk up and open the gate, and said 'good morning, beautiful day innit'. It worked a charm—she took her attention off the horse—and put it square on me." Evan looked off into the distance again. "It took my breath away." Evan was solemn; we waited for the punch line. "She puts her ridin' crop down and looks out to the field, the fox had doubled back and everyone took off after it into the woods. Once they were out of sight she looked at me, and Lord, she looked crazy. You ever see a woman that mad, mister, don't talk to her, just run." He shuddered, and drained the mug of cider. "'You saw me,' she says, I saw you there. Why did you run away and come back?'
"Well, I couldn't say shit." Laughter sounded from behind, maybe McNeal; don't see him in here much anymore. "So she marches up to me and whips that crop right into the side of my leg, and yow! My eyes was tearin'. And she asks me again, and I can't say anything 'cause I can't see, and that crop come down right across my ass." He paused for effect; a low murmur came from the crowd. "I just about screamed, it felt like fire mixed with salt, it was horrible." His eyes shone. "Wanna see?"
The crowd unanimously demurred. He'd been moving very well when he came into the pub and had not winced when he sat.
