"Take advantage!--Of course dey take advantage! So would I, so would you--if we was in their shoes. Dey would be just pluddy fools not to. Dere is only so much in de world. Dey take what dey can get; and the veak to the vall. Shentlemen and Christians! Dere is no such tings. Tell the tale to mugs!--Dere is just Man and Woman, both worms, wriggled up out of the mud. Man wants Woman; and Woman wants it cushie. So de rich man buys her. Can you compete against him?--Is your body sleek with food and wine and lying in bed?--Is your spirit nourished on books and music and plays?--Can you fill her eye with your fatness, and clothe her body in furs, and adorn her hair with jewels, and fill her lap with gold?--No; de rich man buys what he wants, and he wants de best all de time. For you and me what is left over when he haf finished. Dat is so all de way through--women, wine, horses, what you vill. Touch your hat and say--Tank you, sair. Vair much obliged. It is always de same." He wagged a yellow fore-finger. "Dere is only two tings Ruling Class leaves to you and me." He cackled horribly. "One is Work"--he pronounced it vurk--"and de udder is War." CHAPTER XLI THE DECOY POND After the battle between the two men, Ruth retired into the fortress from which Ernie had lured her before the Captain's arrival. The old restraint was on her, and hostility was now added. She barely noticed him when they met, and he, wary for once and wise, made no advances to her. But hope was quickening in his heart, for September was on them now, and the leave-season was drawing to an end. One afternoon Céleste flitted past him like a wagtail. "Cheer, Ernie-boy," she mocked. "He's going away." "Who is?" "Captain, my Captain." "When?" "At once." She halted. "But--he's taking her away with him." Ernie turned grey. "Who told you?" "One of the girls. They take it in turns to sit in the dressing-room of evenings to hear the latest. It's like an aviary, they say. _Coo-bird! coo! now me! now you! You was good to me when I was ill, Ruth,_ he says last night. _Now I am going to give you a treat. I'm going to take you to Paree for the week-end on my way back to India._" Ernie came closer. He looked ugly. "If I catch any of you girls in there----" "Baa-a-a!" mocked the naughty one. "Who was caught in there himself?" Ernie was now extraordinarily alert and vivid. The old sleepy benevolence had vanished: he was listening at last to that voice which none of us can afford to neglect, the voice which says at all times, to all men in all places-- _Beware!_ Salvation Joe took a professional and proprietory interest in the change, which for some obscure reason he attributed to his own direct intervention in heavenly places. "What is it then?" he asked. "Has HE found you at last?" Ernie, who as he gathered strength, gained also in flippancy, replied: