BIT RYAN EEL
'You remember Bob what used to live at the far end yonder?' said the old man. 'Short. thickset chap, he was. Got half his face an' lip off, he bad.' No one seemed to call him to mind. It was evidently the start of a bit of a tall tale, and the old man was determined to begin with some fact that would give an impression of truth to what followed. 'His mother kept the little shop. . . Ah, yes, someone remembered the little shop and that was enough. `Well, he was always down on the shore pokin' about for congers in the rocks when the tide was out. There was big congers to be had here then, some as thick as a man's thigh. One day Bob is peerin' up a hole and proddin' when out comes a great brute and bites him on the nose. That's how he lost half his face. Cured him o' conger fishin', I can tell you!"Oh, ah,' a sceptic recalled, `I knew Bob Shop. He got that in an accident in the quarry.' There was a pause and then the old man spat, determined not to be beaten. `That's what he said. It sounded better than tellin' he got bit by a blinkin' eel.'
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