"It's to be a full sitting, remember." "Don't fear for us," laughed Trumble.
"Nor for Crailey," Jefferson added.

"After so long a vacation you couldn't keep him away if you chained him to the court-house pillars; he'd tear 'em in two!" "Here's to our better fortunes, then!" said the old soldier, filling a glass for Tappingham; and, "Here's to our better fortunes!" echoed the young men, pouring off the gentle liquor heartily.

Having thus made libation to their particular god, the trio separated.

But Jefferson did not encounter the alacrity of acceptance he expected from Crailey, when he found him, half an hour later, at the hotel bar.

Indeed, at first, Mr.Gray not only refused outright to go, but seriously urged the same course upon Jefferson; moreover, his remonstrance was offered in such evident good faith that Bareaud, in the act of swallowing one of his large doses of quinine, paused with only half the powder down his throat, gazing, nonplussed, at his prospective brother-in-law.
"My immortal soul!" he gasped.