on, he endeavoured by means of his teeth to
detach a portion of the right thigh of Police-constable Higgins, and
with his feet to raise bruises where he could on the persons of his
captors.

"Pore ole 'Okey-Pokey!" remarked Bindle, as he returned to the
dining-room, where he had now been allotted two tables, for which he
was to be entirely responsible. "Pore ole 'Okey-Pokey. I'm afraid I
got 'is goat; but didn't 'e make a mess of Ole Whiskers!"

Herr Smith had gone home. When a man is sixty years of age and,
furthermore, when he has been a superintendent of a restaurant for
upwards of twenty-five years, he cannot with impunity be rammed in the
solar-plexus by a hard-headed and vigorous Italian.

While Giuseppi Antonio Tolmenicino in a cell at Vine Street Police
Station was forecasting the downfall of the Allies by the secession of
Italy from the Entente, Bindle was striving to satisfy the demands of
the two sets of customers that sat at his tables. He made mistakes,
errors of commission and omission; but his obviously genuine desire to
satisfy everybody inclined people to be indulgent.

The man who was waiting for pancakes received with a smile
half-a-dozen oysters; whilst another customer was bewildered at
finding himself expected to commence his meal with pancakes and jam.
When such errors were pointed out, Bindle would scratch his head in
perplexity, then, as light dawned upon him, he would break out into a
grin, make a dive for the pancakes and quickly exchange them for the
oysters.

The names of the various dishes he found almost beyond him and, to
overcome the difficulty, he asked the customers to point out on the
menu what they required. Then again he found himself expected to carry
a multiplicity of plates and dishes.

At first he endeavoured to emulate his confreres. On one occasion he
set out from the dining-room with three dishes containing respectively
"caille en casserole," a Welsh rarebit, and a steak and fried
potatoes. The steak and fried potatoes were for a lady of ample
proportions with an almost alarmingly low-cut blouse. In placing the
steak and metal dish of potatoes before her, Bindle's eye for a second
left the other two plates, which began to tilt.

The proprietor of the large-bosomed lady was, with the aid of a
fish-knife, able to hold in place the Welsh rarebit; but he was too
late in his endeavour to reach the under-plate on which reposed the
"caille en casserole," which suddenly made