"Of course it's a good offer, little fella," Grimshaw said encouragingly, and then turned to look at Bob with an expression of 'I told you so'. "Yet something entirely unexpected happened when I made that offer to the Crystal alligator. He just up and rejected the offer - almost as if it was offensive somehow."
Grimshaw shook his head, wearing a bewildered expression, as if he could not fathom why such a thing had happened.
"Although the alligator refused to elaborate on why it refused my perfectly reasonable offer to accept it as my slave, I did not take it to heart. If it's meant to be, it'll be. Yet I didn't feel right about just giving up, either. So I requested the Crystal alligator to make a bet with me. Since I made a request, he naturally obliged."
