"A bottle from which the cork has never been removed," added Old Spicer.
"All right, I have just what you want;" and the proprietor quietly left the room.
Barney and Jake watched the quartet narrowly, but hardly spoke while their friend was away.
Presently he returned with a bottle and four glasses on a good-sized waiter.
"What!" exclaimed Old Spicer, as he set down the waiter, "ain't you going to take a toothful with us for sociability's sake?"
"Why, of course, if you wish it," was the reply, and slipping over to the other table, he took up his own glass, which was still partially filled, and raised it to his lips.
"None of that!" cried Rouse, sharply. "Throw that stuff away and fill fair of this bottle."
"Stuff?" retorted the proprietor, "Why, this is good French brandy, man."
"The deuce it is! How cursed lonesome it must be!"
"Lonesome? Why?"