Rivera bowed as one who understands; and giving me the cloak to be still a refuge for the Toledoes, watched us, as by a side door we got onto the walk and headed for Gadsby's over the way.
There were the four of us, Noah, Kendall, Hill, and myself, when we came into that great room of Gadsby's which was reserved for routs and dancing. It was a large and lofty room with a gallery all about. We had the place to ourselves for the moment; Pigeon-breast and his principal were yet to arrive upon the scene.
Noah kicked off the overshoes, and stepped and scrubbed his feet against the flooring boards. The experiment ended to his taste.
“The resin holds,” he remarked. Then glancing about the vast apartment, he came back to me with a smile: “It's like fighting in a 10-acre field,” said he.
Pigeon-breast appeared by a far door. Besides his bully principal, there were two others, for I had named the propriety of witnesses and suggested the number. I crossed over and greeted Pigeon-breast, and then led him aside.
“Is either of the gentlemen with you,” said I, “a surgeon?”
“Why, no,” returned Pigeon-breast, “the thing clean slipped my mind.”
“It might be well to send, then,” I said, “for I think he will be wanted.”
Pigeon-breast spoke to the others, who, with Catron between them, had continued near the door. Pigeon-breast, after a word, returned to me.
“There is a surgeon below,” he reported; “he will be with us like winking, for he loves this kind of thing.”