and tradition of the Grill, that whoever enters it must speak with
whomever he finds there. It is to enforce this rule that there is but
one long table, and whether there are twenty men at it or two, the
waiters, supporting the rule, will place them side by side.

For this reason the four strangers at supper were seated together,
with the candles grouped about them, and the long length of the table
cutting a white path through the outer gloom.

"I repeat," said the gentleman with the black pearl stud, "that the
days for romantic adventure and deeds of foolish daring have passed,
and that the fault lies with ourselves. Voyages to the pole I do not
catalogue as adventures. That African explorer, young Chetney, who
turned up yesterday after he was supposed to have died in Uganda, did
nothing adventurous. He made maps and explored the sources of rivers.
He was in constant danger, but the presence of danger does not
constitute adventure. Were that so, the chemist who studies high
explosives, or who investigates deadly poisons, passes through
adventures daily. No, 'adventures are for the adventurous.' But one no
longer ventures. The spirit of it has died of inertia. We are grown
too practical, too just, above all, too sensible. In this room, for
instance, members of this Club have, at the sword's point, disputed
the proper scanning of one of Pope's couplets. Over so weighty a
matter as spilled Burgundy on a gentleman's cuff, ten men fought
across this table, each with his rapier in one hand and a candle in
the other. All ten were wounded. The question of the spilled Burgundy
concerned but two of them. The eight others engaged because they were
men of 'spirit.' They were, indeed, the first gentlemen of the day.
To-night, were you to spill Burgundy on my cuff, were you even to
insult me grossly, these gentlemen would not consider it incumbent