l
be weighed in the scales."

"He! he! he!" sniggered the Griffin, "if my scales cannot crush the
scales of George's blatant armour may I live to bite my own nails.
Why, I will squash him as flat as an empty meat tin."

"Swank," murmured St. George, nonchalantly.

"The reason of the contest," continued the Lion in a loud voice, as if
he were reading from some document which he had committed to memory,
"is owing to a ridiculous assertion made by the Griffin. The Griffin
claims to be the older established of the two. St. George laughs at
this claim derisively. The Griffin sorely provoked to it,
unfortunately fell back upon dates, and his memory being very weak he
hoped to conceal his shakiness about dates, with phrases. He therefore
declared that Temple Bar where he now stands, once possessed two gates
which have since been removed. Nevertheless the Griffin contends that
he is still there and Temple Bar is still there; in this he is
undoubtedly right; yet, not content with this, he further asserts that
this is the whole cause and origin of the phrase, 'Two to one, Bar
one.' St. George here present, who knows something about horses,
immediately called him a--well, it is not a nice word," broke off the
Lion in parenthesis, "anyway St. George intimated that the truth was
not in the Griffin. Hence a trial by combat. Are you ready?" roared
the Lion; "then commence."

From his quite comfortable seat between the Lion's paws, Ridgwell now
watched the strangest combat he would ever be likely to witness.

The Griffin advanced towards St. George with about as much grace as a
dancing camel would possess. His excessive angularity was accentuated
by his extraordinary clumsiness. St. George did not appear at all
disconcerted by the flapping of the Griffin's wings, but managed to
avoid his clumsy clutches with great skill. Had St. George not slipped
upon a piece of orange-peel, inadvertently left upon the floor of the
arena, it is doubtful if the Griffin would ever have touched him. As
St. George slipped, the Griffin hugged him tightly. Ridgwell held his
breath, for it almost seemed as if St. George's armour must indeed
crumple up.

"Meat tins," shrieked the Griffin.

"Break away," commanded the Lion.

"Here, I say," snorted the Griffin, "I'd only just got him."

"Break away," ordered the Lion, "no hugging."

The Griffin retired to his corner pouting.

When the second bout started, Ridgwell noticed that there w