"bushes have eyes, don't forget"

(520.22-522.23)  As the old man and Shaun continue to banter back and forth, the old man once again grows impatient.  "What hill ar yu fluking about, ye lamelookond fyats!" he says to Shaun.  "I'll discipline ye!"  He asks Shaun whether he'll swear to the second version of his story and recant everything he said when he recounted HCE's fall the first time.

"Ay say aye," replies Shaun, effectively swearing that he swore falsely.  The old man still isn't quite satisfied, though, and he goes on to ask Shaun how much he's getting paid for all this swearing.  "Vurry nothing," replies Shaun, insisting that he isn't seeing a penny for "the whole dumb plodding thing."  Not even a drink?  "Bushmillah!" Shaun says.  "Do you think for a moment?  Yes, by the way.  How very necessarily true!  Give me fair play.  When?"  Clearly, Shaun is having it both ways, giving contradictory answers.  Still, it's the Wake, so perhaps each side of the contradiction is true.  Nevertheless, the old man eventually grows so frustrated with Shaun's wavering that he challenges him to step outside:  "Guid!  We make fight!  Three to one!  Raddy?"  (Earlier on page 521, Shaun has seemingly merged with John, making the fight three old men versus one.)  Shaun doesn't want to fight, though.  He'd rather sail down the Queen's road.  "Farewell, but whenever!" he says.  "Buy!"

But the old man doesn't let Shaun leave the witness stand yet, and he concedes that perhaps Shaun's contradictions are indicative of the complex interplay of actors and actions present within HCE's story.  "Let me once more," he says.  "There are sordidly tales within tales, you clearly understand that?  Now my other point."  This other point is whether Shaun knew that HCE had been "accused of a certain offence or of a choice of two serious charges, as skirts were divided on the subject."  Shaun acknowledges this fact:  "You hear things.  Besides (and serially now) bushes have eyes, don't forget.  Hah!"  Would Shaun rather play "bull before shebears" or "the hindlegs off a clotheshorse," the old man wonders.  He also asks whether there were any "orangepeelers or greengoaters" on Shaun's "sylvan family tree."  Shaun laughs off this question as well:  "Buggered if I know!  It all depends on how much family silver you want for a nass-and-pair.  Hah!"

Shaun's laughter draws the old man's wrath again.  "What do you mean sir, behind your hah!" he asks.  "Nothing, sir," Shaun replies.  "Only a bone moving into place.  Blotogaff.  Hahah!"