"That is quite true," said Miller; "I am glad you had no fight."
Said Corrigan: "You offered to fight any one of the blackguards, and whin they refused, you came away? It was the proper thing to do."
"Did you have any weapons with you, Harding?" asked Ashley.
"Not a thing in the world," was the reply.
"I am glad of that," said Ashley. "The temptation to wing one or two of the brutes, would have been very great had you been 'fixed.'"
"I am glad it was no worse," said Wright. "You said it was down by the California Bank corner?"
"No," replied Harding; "it was by the Fredericksburg Brewery corner, on Union Street, just below C."
"You managed the matter first-rate, Harding," said Wright. "Do not think any more about it."
Harding, thus reassured by his friends, felt better, but said if three of the Club would go with him he would undertake to do his part to bring hostilities to a successful close with the bullies.
Ashley and Corrigan at once volunteered, but Wright and Carlin interfered and said it must not be, and Brewster expostulated against any such thing.