. "What good is it to us when
we're put to sweep rooms and carry messages?"

"Do you mean to say you intend to stick to that sort of thing all your
life?" asked Reg.

"Till I can find something better," said Horace. "After all, old man,
it's honest work, and not very fagging, and it's eighteen shillings a
week."

"Anyhow, I think we might let Richmond know what a nice berth he's let
us in for. Why, his office-boy's better off."

"Yes, and if we knew as much about book-keeping and agreement stamps and
copying presses as his office-boy does, we might be as well off. What's
the good of knowing how many ships fought at Salamis, when we don't even
know how many ounces you can send by post for twopence? At least, I
don't. Good-night, old man."

And Horace, really scarcely less miserable at heart than his brother,
buried his nose in the Dull Street pillow and tried to go to sleep.

CHAPTER SIX.

REGINALD'S PROSPECTS DEVELOP.

It was in anything but exuberant spirits that the two Crudens presented
themselves on the following morning at the workman's entrance of the
_Rocket_ Newspaper Company, Limited. The bell was beginning to sound as
they did so, and their enemy the timekeeper looked as though he would
fain discover a pretext for pouncing on them and giving them a specimen
of his importance. But even his ingenuity failed in this respect, and
as Horace passed him with a good-humoured nod, he had, much against his
will, to nod back, and forego his amiable intentions.

The brothers naturally turned their steps to the room presided over by
Mr Durfy. That magnate had not yet arrived, much to their relief, and
they consoled themselves in his absence by standing at the table
watching their fellow-workmen as they crowded in and proceeded with more
or less alacrity to settle down to their day's work.

Among those who displayed no unseemly haste in applying themselves to
their tasks was Barber, who, with the dust of the back case-room still
in his mind, and equally on his countenance, considered the present
opportunity of squaring up accounts with Reginald too good to be
neglected. For reasons best known to himself, Mr Barber determined
that his victim's flagellation should be moral rather than physical. He
would have liked to punch Reginald's head, or, better still, to have
knocked Reginald's and Horace's heads together. But he saw reasons for
denying himself that pleasure, and fell back on the more etherea