Page:Soldiers Three - Kipling (1890).djvu/51

 "I misremimber fwhat nonsinse I said, but I was not so far gone that I cud not hear a fut on the dirt outside. 'Twas Bragin comin' in, an' by the same token Annie was comin' to. I jumped to the far end av the verandah an' looked as if butter wudn't melt in my mouth. But Mrs. Quinn, the Quarter Master's wife that was, had tould Bragin about my hangin' round Annie.

I'm not pleased wid you, Mulvaney,' sez Bragin, unbucklin' his sword, for he had been on duty.

That's bad hearin',' I sez, an' I knew that the pickets were dhriven in. 'What for, Sargint?' sez I.

Come outside,' sez he, 'an' I'll show you why.'

I'm willin',' I sez; 'but my stripes are none so ould that I can afford to lose thim, Tell me now, who do I go out wid?' sez I.

"He was a quick man an' a just, an' saw fwhat I wud be afther. 'Wid Mrs. Bragin's husband,' sez he. He might ha' known by me askin' that favour that I had done him no wrong.

"We wint to the back av the arsenal an' I stripped to him, an' for ten minutes 'twas all I cud do to prevent him killin' himself against my fistes. He was mad as a dumb dog—just frothing wid rage; but he had no chanst wid me in reach, or learnin', or anything else.

Will ye hear reason?' sez I, whin his first wind was runnin' out.

Not whoile I can see,' sez he. Wid that I gave him both, one after the other, smash through the low gyard that he'd been taught whin he was a boy, an' the eyebrow shut down on the cheekbone like the wing av a sick crow.

Will you hear reason now, ye brave man?' sez I.

Not whoile I can speak,' sez he, staggerin' up blind as a stump. I was loth to do ut, but I wint round an' swung into the jaw side-on an' shifted ut a half pace to the lef'.

Will ye hear reason now?' sez I; 'I can't keep my timper much longer, an' 'tis like I will hurt you.'