and he got sacked. There was an awful row. I thought my hair would have
turned white.'

'I shouldn't think the Mutual poaches,' said Vaughan. 'He hasn't got
the enterprise to poach an egg even. No, it can't be that.'

'Perhaps he bikes?' said the Babe.

'No, he's not got a bike. He's the sort of chap, though, to borrow
somebody else's without asking. Possibly he does bike.'

'If he does,' said Dallas, 'it's only so as to get well away from the
Coll., before starting on his career of crime. I'll swear he does break
rules like an ordinary human being when he thinks it's safe. Those
aggressively pious fellows generally do.'

'I didn't know he was that sort,' said the Babe. 'Don't you find it
rather a jar?'

'Just a bit. He jaws us sometimes till we turn and rend him.'

'Yes, he's an awful man,' said Vaughan.

'Don't stop,' said the Babe, encouragingly, after the silence had
lasted some time. 'It's a treat picking a fellow to pieces like this.'

'I don't know if that's your beastly sarcasm, Babe,' said Vaughan,
'but, speaking for self and partner, I don't know how we should get on
if we didn't blow off steam occasionally in this style.'