“Indeed,” the man with the black hat replied.

“What do we do now?” The other man asked; a hint of scorn accompanying the escaped words from the pale man’s frail open mouth.

It appeared to pain the man with the black hat to answer the pale man’s inquisition. “The only thing that is left to do, I suppose.”

Upon hearing his response, a sense of anger overtook the pale man. He acted as though he was accustomed to the constant tricks and riddles that the man with the black hat spewed. Quickly attempting to find an apt response to the statement; while the man with the black hat adjusted his hat, the pale man began “And just what is ‘that’ supposed to mean?–“ only to be cut off with an unusual allegory. ”If a lion, and a trombone, were to compete in a contest, to see who had the loudest roar of the two, and if the only witness to this contest were a snake, who, my dear friend, would win?”

The pale man, despite his belief that this ‘investigation’ was quite foolish, was intrigued and his response was rich with ridicule and sarcasm.

“Well, ‘surely’ they both would lose. The snake, not having ears, would be unable to properly mediate the contest, thus the match would result in a draw!”

The man with the black hat cocked an eyebrow, and without looking directly at the pale man’s face, simply muttered, “perhaps”.

The pale man condescendingly asked, “You disagree?”

With a laugh that appeared to be more forced than a Canadian is free, the man furthered his inquest. “Out of the three beings, my dear friend, which is capable of hearing sound?”

“The lion, I would think, so long as there was nothing impairing his ability.”

“Then surely, the lion would win, would he not?”

With wide eyes, the pale man responded. “Well… yes… come to think of it. I suppose he would.” The pale man nodded in agreement.

Without missing a beat, the man with the black hat asked, “Then your previous statement that the match would result in a draw would be a tad bit…incorrect…would it not?”

After a moment’s thought, and what appeared to be much effort, the pale man simply replied, “It would”. The pale man spat. Ignoring this, the man with the black hat continued, “However, would the lion not be in a dilemma as to ‘how’ he would go about proving that he had truly won the contest, to the other two beings?