with Simpkins? Did he force you to buy the carpet, or did he try to prevent you?" 

 "No, he didn't. I wouldn't let the beast inside this house." 

 "Very well then. Don't go on about the carpet. Tell me plainly and straightforwardly why you call Simpkins a meddlesome ass." 

 "Because he pokes his nose into everybody's business," said the Major, "and won't let people alone." 

 Meldon took a note on a sheet of paper. 

 "Good," he said.  "Simpkins—meddlesome ass—pokes his nose into everybody's business. Now, who is everybody?" 

 "Who is what, J. J.?" 

 "Who is everybody? That's plain enough, isn't it? For instance, are you everybody?" 

 "No, I'm not. How could I be?" 

 "Then I take it that Simpkins has not poked his nose into your business. Is Doyle everybody?" 

 "He has poked his nose into my business." 

 "Be careful now, Major. You're beginning to contradict yourself. What business of yours has he poked his nose into? Was it the carpet?" 

 "No. I told you he had nothing to do with the carpet. He made a beastly fuss about my fishing in the river above the bridge. He threatened to prosecute me." 

 "He may have been perfectly justified in that," said Meldon.  "What right have you to fish in the upper part of the river?" 

 "I always fished there. I've fished there for thirty years and more." 

 "These questions of fishing rights," said Meldon, "are often extremely complicated. There may very well be something to be said on both sides. I don't think I can proceed to deal with Simpkins in the way you suggest, unless he has done something worse than interfere with your fishing. What else have you got against him?" 

 "He tried to stir up the dispensary doctor to prosecute Doyle on account of the insanitary condition of some of his houses." 

 "I expect he was perfectly right there," said Meldon.  

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