into the darkness together.

[Illustration: The Two Colonels]

Once, to our consternation, the little Colonel replaced his napkin in
its ring without waiting for the signal from the tall Colonel. But our
apprehension that they, in their dealings in that mysterious outer world
which twice daily they sought together, might have fallen into a
difference of opinion was dispelled by the little Colonel, who had
risen, stepping to his friend and holding out his hand. This the tall
Colonel without withdrawing his eyes from _Le Journal des Débats_ which
he was reading, silently pressed. Then, still without a word spoken or a
look exchanged, the little Colonel passed out alone.

[Illustration: The Young and Brave]

The average age of the Ogams was seventy. True, there was Dunois the
Young and Brave, who could not have been more than forty-five. What his
name really was we knew not, but something in his comparatively juvenile
appearance among the chevaliers suggested the appellation which for lack
of a better we retained. Dunois' youth might only be comparative, but
his bravery was indubitable; for who among the Ogams but he was daring
enough to tackle the _pâté-de-foie-gras_, or the _abattis_, a stew
composed of the gizzards and livers of fowls? And who but Dunois would
have been so reckless as to follow baked mussels and _crépinettes_ with
_rognons frits_?

Dunois, too, revealed intrepid leanings toward strange liquors.
Sometimes--it was usually at _déjeûner_ when he had dined out on the
previous evening--he would demand the wine-list of Iorson, and rejecting