-- and the dirty scrawl of the wretch， says joe. here， says he， take them to hell out of my sight， alf. hello， bloom， says he， what will you have？
so they started arguing about the point， bloom saying he wouldn't and couldn't and excuse him no offence and all to that and then he said well he'd just take a cigar. gob， he's a prudent member and no mistake.
-- give us one of your prime stinkers， terry， says joe.
and alf was telling us there was one chap sent in a mourning card with a black border round it.
-- they're all barbers， says he， from the black country that would hang their own fathers for five quid down and travelling expenses.
and he was telling us there's two fellows waiting below to pull his heels down when he gets the drop and choke him properly and then they chop up the rope after and sell the bits for a few bob a skull.
in the dark land they bide， the vengeful knights of the razor. their deadly coil they grasp： yea， and therein they lead to erebus whatsoever wight hath done a deed of blood for i will on nowise suffer it even so saith the lord.
so they started talking about capital punishment and of course bloom comes out with the why and the wherefore and all the codology of the business and the old dog smelling him all the time i'm told those jewies does have a sort of a queer odour coming off them for dogs about i don't know what all deterrent effect and so forth and so on.
-- there's one thing it hasn't a deterrent effect on， says alf.
-- what's that？ says joe.
-- the poor bugger's tool that's being hanged， says alf.
-- that so？ says joe.
-- god's truth， says alf. i heard that from the head warder that was in kilmainham when they hanged joe brady， the invincible. he told me when they cut him down after the drop it was standing up in their faces like a poker.
-- ruling passion strong in death， says joe， as someone said.
-- that can be explained by science， says bloom. it's only a natural phenomenon， don't you see， because on account of the...