There had been much half-suppressed laughter while Rex was telling his story, and when he had finished, the students roared with delight. Rex had never before given himself so much trouble to amuse them, and the effect of his narrative was immense.
‘He talks as if he knew something about it,’ said one, nudging his neighbour.
‘Perhaps he helped to wear out the nose,’ answered the other still laughing.
‘A health to you all,’ cried Rex, draining his full measure.
‘And may none of you parry carte with the proboscis,’ he added, as he set down the empty cup.
‘Ha! That is a good thing!’ laughed the voice of the burly second as he entered the room, his face beaming with delight.
‘Out with the foxes, there is business here for a few minutes.’ The foxes, who were not privileged to hear the deliberations of their elders upon such grave matters, rose together and filed out, carrying their pipes and drinking-cups with them. Then the second sat down in his vacant place.
‘Well?’ asked Greif. ‘Is it all settled.’
‘Yes. The cattle wanted to fight you first. I said the Philistine insisted--excuse me, no offence. Good. Now--that was all.’
The second buried his nose in a foaming tankard.
‘Is it for to-morrow morning?’ asked Rex calmly.
‘Palmengarten, back entrance, four sharp.’
‘What do you mean?’ asked Greif. ‘Are we to fight in the Palmengarten, in the restaurant?’
‘Poetic,’ he observed. ‘Marble floor--fountain playing--palm trees in background.’ ‘Then we must go there at that hour so as not to be seen?’
‘The Poodle thinks it is at Schneckenwinkel, and is going out by the early train to lie in wait,’ chuckled the burly student.
‘There he will sit all the morning like a sparrow limed on a twig.’
‘Have we any other pairs?’ asked Greif absently.
‘Three others. Two foxes and Hollenstein. He is gone to bed and I am going to send the foxes after him. We can make a night of it, if you like.’
‘I will stay with you,’ said Rex, who seemed jovially inclined.
Neither Greif nor the second thought it their business to suggest that their combatant had better get some rest before the battle. When two o’clock struck, Rex was teaching them all a new song, which was not in the book, his clear strong voice ringing out steadily and tunefully through the smoky chamber, his smooth complexion neither flushed nor pale from the night’s carousal, his stony eyes as colourless and forbidding, as his smile was genial and unaffected.
