“Fall! fall! Why don’t you fall?”

“I shan’t! Why don’t you fall yourself? You’re getting the worst of it.”

“Why, that ain’t anything. I can’t fall; that ain’t the way it is in the book. The book says, ‘Then with one backhanded stroke he slew poor Guy of Guisborne.’ You’re to turn around and let me hit you in the back.”

There was no getting around the authorities, so Joe turned, received the whack and fell.

“Now,” said Joe, getting up, “you got to let me kill you . That’s fair.”

“Why, I can’t do that, it ain’t in the book.”

“Well, it’s blamed mean⁠—that’s all.”