"Oh, now, forget it, Ben," was his half joking admonition. "What the d--l's the use of you runnin' amuck again an' makin' bad worse?... That won't help matters one little bit ... an' you know it."
Ever and anon--above the roar of the Canteen, not unlike the booming note of a bittern amid the croaking and chirping of all the other lesser denizens of some swamp--would rise the mighty brogue of the genial Constable O'Hara, in a general exhortation to:
"Come on! Fwet yure whustles an' sing-g, ye scutts, with 'gr-reat gusto.' For ut was:
Down, down, in swate Counthy Down, An' th' pore ol' night-watchman was jus' passin' roun; Puts his hand to his nob to feel where he was hit-- Sez he "Holy Shmoke! but Oi'm--"
The stentorian voice broke off short as the vocalist glanced suspiciously at the empty glass at his elbow which a minute before had been full.
"Here," quoth he with some heat; "who was ut dhrunk my beer?... Was ut you, Tabuteau?... Eyah, now! but thot's a Galway man's thrick ivry toime!... Fill ut up agin, an' kape ut filled contihnuous, tu, ye Fenian rapparees, d'ye hear?... else, begob! ye can get some other shtiff tu blow the 'Pipes av Pan' for ye!... Come on, now!... fwet yure whustles an' opin yure thraps an' sing-g, ye half-baked omadhauns! ... Now, thin! all together! For ut was:
Not las' night, but th' night behfure, Tu tohm-cahts come a-knockin' at th' dhure"
Ellis remained very still for some time, staring at his companion with an absent, brooding face.
"Just think what it'd mean," pursued Dudley. "As this matter stands just now you _have_ got a reasonable show of getting away with it; but, I tell you flat, old man ... a _second_ edition of it wouldn't go.... You know what 'Father's' like in Orderly-room. You never know which way he's going to jump.... You'd be 'broke' for a certainty, anyway.... I don't want to see your name in 'G.O.'s' _that_ way.... Come, now! will you be a wise guy an' listen to your Uncle Dud?"
Thus he pleaded with the man who was to him a comrade and a sincere friend.
"Oh, well," responded Benton at last, wearily, with an oath. "I guess I'll let up on that stiff this time. I handed him enough to last for a bit, anyway, so that's some satisfaction."