nd his guests turned their chairs towards the
fireplace. The King took flint and steel and struck a match; lit his
pipe, and stared at the shavings; then dropped the light on the floor,
ground it out with his heel, and puffed away thoughtfully. The preacher
went on talking.

"Render unto Caesar . . . tribute to whom tribute is due. That applies
to King George to-day every bit so much as it did to Caesar."

"Caesar and King George be two different persons," said Captain John,
stopping his pipe with his thumb.

"The principle's the same."

"I don't see it," said the captain. "I read my Bible, and it says that
Caesar ordered the whole world to be taxed. Now that's sense.
Caesar didn't go niggling away with a duty on silk here and another on
brandy there and another on tea and another on East Indy calicoes. Mind
you, I've got no personal feeling against King George; but it does annoy
me to see a man calling hisself King of England and making money in
these petty ways."

"It's his birthday to-day," put in Mrs. Geen; "though I didn't remember
it till I saw the flag on Ardevora church-tower this morning."

"Is it? Then we'll drink his health, ma'am, to show there's no
animosity." Captain John fetched a bottle of brandy and glasses and
mixed drinks for his guests. Then he took his seat, reached out for
flint and steel again, and says he very quietly--

"I wish the boys were at home. We'd have a bonfire."

"Up to Walsall--that's where I come from," said the preacher, "we always
kept up His Majesty's birthday with a bonfire and fireworks. But you
don't seem so loyal in these parts."

"Fireworks? Did you now?" Captain John set down the tinder-box and
rubbed his chin. "Well," said he, going to a cupboard, and glancing up
on his way at the tall clock, "as it happens I've a rocket or two here--
though to be sure it seems like a waste, with nobody left in the Cove to
see or raise so much as a cheer."

"It's the spirit of the thing that counts," said the preacher.

"They've lain here so long," Captain John went on in a sort of musing
way, "they may be mildewed, for all I know."

"You leave that to me," said the preacher; "I knows all about fireworks.
There don't seem nothing wrong about this one," he said, taking it and
fingering the fuse. "May I have a try with 'em?"

"Try, and welcome. I don't understand these things for my part: I only
know they takes up a lot of room in the cupboard, and I'll be glad