Page:The Wouldbegoods.djvu/275

 began to try and chaff Oswald. Oswald said in an undervoice to H. O.:

"Just take charge. I want to speak to the girls a sec. Call if you want anything." And then he drew the others away, to say he thought there'd been enough of it, and considering the boys and the new three men, perhaps we'd better chuck it and go home. We'd been benevolent nearly four hours anyway.

While this conversation and the objections of the others were going on, H. O. perpetuated an act which nearly wrecked the Benevolent Bar.

Of course Oswald was not an eye or ear witness of what happened, but from what H. O. said in the calmer moments of later life, I think this was about what happened:

One of the big disagreeable men said to H. O.:

"Ain't got such a thing as a drop o' spirit, 'ave yer?"

H. O. said no, we hadn't, only lemonade and tea.

"Lemonade and tea! blank" (bad word I told you about) "and blazes," replied the bad character, for such he afterwards proved to be. "What's that then?"

He pointed to a bottle labelled Dewar's whiskey, which stood on the table near the spirit-kettle.

"Oh, is that what you want?" said H. O., kindly.

The man is understood to have said he should bloomin' well think so, but H. O. is not sure about the bloomin'.

He held out his glass with about half the lemonade in it, and H. O. generously filled up the