the
Commercial Room of his hotel. There, on a very dirty table cloth, were
a knife and fork, a plate which held two chops with a quantity of grease
round them, and a dish with five pallid potatoes in it. The meal was not
appetising. On a very hot day it was almost repulsive. But Mr. Billing
was either really hungry or he was a man of unusual determination. He
sat down to his chops with a smile.

"I guess," he said, "that whisky is the drink you're most likely to have
in this hotel?"

"There's porter," said Mary Ellen, "and there's minerals, and there's
ginger cordial."

"If I'm here for a week," said Mr. Billing, "I'll put you wise in the
matter of making cocktails. A Saratoga cocktail is a drink----"

"Is it whisky I'll bring you now?" said Mary Ellen.

She was a girl of sense and wisdom. She was no more inclined to listen
to Mr. Billing's panegyric of the Saratoga cocktail than to Thady
Gallagher's patriotic denunciation of the flunkeys of the rent office.
Without waiting for an answer she went away and brought Mr. Billing the
usual quantity of Irish whisky in the bottom of a tumbler with a bottle
of soda water.

Doyle and Thady Gallagher, left alone in the street, stared at each
other in silence. It was Doyle who spoke first:

"What you want, Thady," he said, "is a drop of something to drink, to
revive the courage in you."

"What sort of a fellow is that at all?" said Thady hoarsely.

"A pint of porter, now," said Doyle, "or a drop of spirits. You want it
this minute, and you'll want it more before, you're through with the job
that you have on hand."

He led the way into the bar and provided Thady with a satisfying
draught. Thady emptied the tumbler without drawing breath. Then he took
his pipe from his pocket and lit it.

"Mr. Doyle," he said, "you're a man I've a liking for and always had.
What's more, you're a man I respect, and it isn't everyone that I would
say that to."

"The same to you," said Doyle, "and may you live long to enjoy it. Will
you have another drop?"

"I don't mind if I do," said Thady.

Doyle filled up the empty tumbler. As he did so Gallagher spoke with
serious deliberation.

"Seeing that you're a man I've every confidence in, I'd be glad if you'd
tell me this. Who was General John Regan? For I never heard tell of
him."

"It'll be better for you, Thady, to know something about him be the same
more or less, before the gentleman within has finished his dinner. He'll
be ask