"Have you put your gentleman to bed?" asked Jim the Hatter, in a sneering tone in which a sinister ring might have been detected.
"Much obliged to you for the inquiry," replied Chaytor, prepared to fence; "he is sound asleep."
"Interesting child! A case of love at first sight, mates."
Nonentities Numbers One and Two nodded, with dark looks at Chaytor, who smiled genially at them and commenced to smoke.
"Or," said Jim the Hatter, "perhaps an old acquaintance."
"Take your choice," observed Chaytor, who, in finesse and coolness, was a match for the three.
"Doesn't it strike you, Newman, that it's taking a liberty with us to feed and bolster him up, and stand drinks as well, without asking whether we was agreeable?"
"Not at all. The sardines were mine, the biscuits were mine, the grog was mine. If you want to quarrel, say so."
"I'm for peace and quietness," said Jim the Hatter, threateningly. "I was only expressing my opinion."
"And I mine. Look here, mates, I don't want to behave shabbily, so I'll tell you what is in my mind."