"'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