"Now, remember," went on Barnabas, "neither you will say nothing nor I will say nothing o' what has happened. I ha' put you to shame before me an' this gentleman here, an' that is enough. But I tell you, an' you give 'eed now, it would be better for you to desert than to go on a-servin' where you are now. If I meets you again--if my Batt'ry lays with your Reg'ment, an' Privite Shacklock is on the rolls, I will first mill you myself till you can't see, and then I will say why I strook you. You must go, an' look bloomin' slippy about it, for if you stay, so sure as God made Paythans an' we've got to wipe 'em out, you'll be loosing off o' unauthorised amminition--in or out o' barricks, an' you'll be 'anged for it. I know your breed, an' I know what these 'ere white marks mean. You're mad, Shacklock, that's all--and here you stay, under me. An' now _choop_, an' lie still." I waited and smoked, and Gunner Barnabas smoked till the shadows lengthened on the hillside, and a chilly wind began to blow. At dusk Gunner Barnabas rose and looked at his captive. "Drink's out o' 'im now," he said. "I can't move," whimpered Shacklock. "I've got the fever back again." "I'll carry you," said Gunner Barnabas, swinging him up and preparing to climb the hill. "Good-night, sir," he said to me. "It looks pretty, doesn't it? But never you forget, an' I won't forget neither, that this 'ere shiverin', shakin', convalescent a-hangin' on to my neck is a ragin', tearin' devil when 'e's lushy--an' 'e a boy!" He strode up to the hill with his burden, but just before he disappeared he turned round and shouted: "It's the likes o' 'im brings shame on the likes o' us. 'Tain't we ourselves, s'elp me Gawd, 'tain't!" FOOTNOTES: [Footnote 14: "Week's News," Feb. 4, 1888.] HIS BROTHER'S KEEPER[15] "Whist?" "Can't make up a four?" "Poker, then?" "Never again with you, Robin. 'Tisn't good enough, old man." "Seeking what he may devour," murmured a third voice from behind a newspaper. "Stop the punkah, and make him go away." "Don't talk of it on a night like this. It's enough to give a man fits. You've no enterprise. Here I've taken the trouble to come over after dinner----" "On the off-chance of skinning some one. I don't believe you ever crossed a horse for pleasure." "That's true, I never did--and there are only two Johnnies in the Club." "They've all gone off to the Gaff." "_Wah! Wah!_ They must be pretty hard up for amusement. Help me to a split." "Split in this weather! Hi, bearer, _do burra--burra_ whiskey-peg _lao_, and just put all the _barf_ into them that you can find." The newspaper came down with a rustle, as the reader said: "How the deuce d'you expect a man to improve his mind when you two are _bukking_ about drinks? _Qui hai! Mera wasti bhi._" "Oh! you're alive, are you? I thought pegs would fetch you out of that. Game for a little poker?" "Poker--poker--_red-hot_ poker! Saveloy, you're too generous. Can't you let a man die in peace?"