CHAPTER XVII.
LIEUTENANT PUDDOCK RECEIVES AN INVITATION AND A RAP OVER THE KNUCKLES.
The old gentlemen, from their peepholes in the Magazine, watched the progress of this remarkable affair of honour, as well as they could, with the aid of their field-glasses, and through an interposing crowd.
'By Jupiter, Sir, he's through him!' said Colonel Bligh, when he saw O'Flaherty go down.
'So he is, by George!' replied General Chattesworth; 'but, eh, which is he ?' 'The _long_ fellow,' said Bligh.
'O'Flaherty ?--hey!--no, by George!--though so it is--there's work in Frank Nutter yet, by Jove,' said the general, poking his glass and his fat face an inch or two nearer.
'Quick work, general!' said Bligh.
'Devilish,' replied the general.
The two worthies never moved their glasses; as each, on his inquisitive face, wore the grim, wickedish, half-smile, with which an old stager recalls, in the prowess of his juniors, the pleasant devilment of his own youth.
'The cool, old hand, Sir, too much for your new fireworker,' remarked Bligh, cynically.
'Tut, Sir, this O'Flaherty has not been three weeks among us,' spluttered out the general, who was woundily jealous of the honour of his corps.

'There are lads among our fireworkers who would whip Nutter through the liver while you'd count ten!' 'They're removing the--the--( a long pause) the _body_, eh ?' said Bligh.
'Hey! no, see, by George, he's walking but he's _hurt_.' 'I'm mighty well pleased it's no worse, Sir,' said the general, honestly glad.
'They're helping him into the coach--long legs the fellow's got,' remarked Bligh.
'These--things--Sir--are--are--very--un--pleasant,' said the general, adjusting the focus of the glass, and speaking slowly--though no Spanish dandy ever relished a bull-fight more than he an affair of the kind.

He and old Bligh had witnessed no less than five--not counting this--in which officers of the R.I.A.were principal performers, from the same sung post of observation.

The general, indeed, was conventionally supposed to know nothing of them, and to reprobate the practice itself with his whole soul.

But somehow, when an affair of the sort came off on the Fifteen Acres, he always happened to drop in, at the proper moment, upon his old crony, the colonel, and they sauntered into the demi-bastion together, and quietly saw what was to be seen.