heeled, and they know I don't never carry a gun--they all
know me--"

"Still, I'm coming, Spider--"

"Y' can't, bo; Mrs. Trapes ain't goin' t' let ye--look at her!"

"You never spoke a truer word since you drawed the vital air, Spider
Connolly!" nodded Mrs. Trapes, hands on hips and elbows at the "engage."
"If Mr. Geoffrey stirs out this day, he's jest gotter trample over my
mangled remains, that's all!"

Heeding the glitter in her eye and noting the inexorable jut of her
elbows, Ravenslee sat down and went on filling his pipe.

"Y' see, bo, I know as it wasn't you as give Bud away, an' the boys'll
listen t' my say-so--you bet they will. So here's where I ooze away. S'
long, all!"

The Old Un, having bolted the last handful of cake, got upon his legs
and clutched the Spider's coat in talon-like fingers.

"'Old 'ard, young feller, me lad!" he cried. "If there's any chance of
a scrap comin' off--wot about me? Gimme me 'at, Joe, an' get yourn; if I
don't knock some on 'em stone cold--call me a perishin' ass!"

"Why, since you say so, old blood an' bones," said Joe, his mild eye
brightening, "we will step along with the Spider a little way if the
Guv'nor'll excuse us?"

"Certainly, Joe," nodded Ravenslee, "on condition that you do just as
the Spider says."

"You mean, sir?"

"No fighting, Joe--at least, not yet."

"Trust me, sir! What ain't to be--yet, is to be sometime, I 'opes,"
sighed Joe.

"Good-by, Guv, good-by!" croaked the Old Un, "if I don't put some o'
they perishers in the 'orspitals an' the infirmaries--I ain't the man I
was--

"'Oh, used am I to war's alarms
I 'unger for the fray,
Though beauty clasps me in 'er arms
The trumpet calls away.'"

So having made their adieux, the three took their departure; though
once, despite Joe's objurgations, the Old Un must needs come back to
kiss Mrs. Trapes's toil-worn hand with a flourish which left her
voiceless and round of eye until the clatter of their feet had died
away.

Then she closed the door and fixed Ravenslee with her stoniest stare.

"Mr. Geoffrey," she demanded, "why did they call you 'Guv'nor', and
wherefore 'Sir'?"

Ravenslee, in the act of lighting his pipe, had paused for a suitable
answer, when Tony, who had remained mute in a corner, stepped forward
and spoke:

"Say, Geoff, I got-a bit-a more noos. Old-a Finlay-a want-a spik with-a
you--"

"Old Finlay--with me?"

"Sure. Old-a Finlay-a go die-a ver' queek, an' he vant-a s