"Scum of the earth!" burst forth Jasper, with voice like a roll of thunder, "I stooped to come amongst you--I shared amongst you my money. Was any one of you too poor to pay up his club fee--to buy a draught of Forgetfulness--I said, 'Brother, take!' Did brawl break out in your jollities--were knives drawn--a throat in danger--this right band struck down the uproar, crushed back the coward murder. If I did not join in your rogueries, it was because they were sneaking and pitiful. I came as your Patron, not as your Pal; I did not meddle with your secrets--did not touch your plunder. I owed you nothing. Offal that you are! to me you owed drink, and meat, and good fellowship. I gave you mirth, and I gave you Law; and in return ye laid a plot amongst you to get rid of me;--how, ye white-livered scoundrels? Oho! not by those fists, and knives, and bludgeons. All your pigeon breasts clubbed together had not manhood for that. But to palm off upon me some dastardly deed of your own; by snares and scraps of false evidence--false oaths, too, no doubt--to smuggle me off to the hangman. That was your precious contrivance. Once again I am here; but this once only. What for?--why, to laugh at, and spit at, and spurn you. And if one man amongst you has in him an ounce of man's blood, let him show me the traitors who planned that pitiful project, and be they a dozen, they shall carry the mark of this hand till their carcasses go to the surgeon's scalpel." He ceased. Though each was now hustling the other towards him, and the whole pack of miscreants was closing up, like hounds round a wild boar at bay, the only one who gave audible tongue was that thin splinter of life called Cutts! "Look you, General Jas., it was all a mistake your ever coining here. You were a fine fellow once, particularly in the French way of doing business--large prizes and lots of row. That don't suit us; we are quiet Englishmen. You brag of beating and bullying the gentlemen who admit you amongst them, and of not sharing their plans or risks; but that sort of thing is quite out of order--no precedent for it. How do we know that you are not a spy, or could not be made one, since you say you owe us nothing, and hold us in such scorn? Truth is, we are all sick of you. You say you only come this once: very well, you have spun your yarn--now go. That's all we want; go in peace, and never trouble us again. Gentlemen, I move that General Jas. be expelled this club, and requested to withdraw." "I second it," said the man whom Jasper had flung on the table. "Those who are in favour of the resolution, hold up their hands;--all-- carried unanimously. General Jas. is expelled." "Expel me!" said Jasper, who in the mean while, swaying to and fro his brawny bulk, had cleared the space round him, and stood resting his hands on the heavy armchair from which he had risen.