the table.

"'Done,' said I,--'done. But how are we to decide the wager?'

"'That's soon done,' said he. At the same instant he sprang to his legs and
called out: 'Pat, I say, Pat, I want you to present my respects to--'

"'No, no, I bar that; no _ex parte_ statements. Here, Jem, do you simply
tell that--'

"'That fellow can't deliver a message. Do come here, Pat. Just beg of--'

"'He'll blunder it, the confounded fool; so, Jem, do you go.'

"The two individuals thus addressed were just in the act of conveying a
tray of glasses and a spiced round of beef for supper into the mess-room;
and as I may remark that they fully entered into the feelings of jealousy
their respective masters professed, each eyed the other with a look of very
unequivocal dislike.

"'Arrah! you needn't be pushing me that way,' said Pat, 'an' the round o'
beef in my hands.'

"'Devil's luck to ye, it's the glasses you'll be breaking with your awkward
elbow!'

"'Then, why don't ye leave the way? Ain't I your suparior?'

"'Ain't I the captain's own man?'

"'Ay, and if you war. Don't I belong to his betters? Isn't my master the
two liftenants?'

"This, strange as it may sound, was so far true, as I held a commission in
an African corps, with my lieutenancy in the 5th.

"'Be-gorra, av he was six--There now, you done it!'

"At the same moment, a tremendous crash took place and the large dish
fell in a thousand pieces on the pavement, while the spiced round rolled
pensively down the yard.

[Illustration: THE RIVAL FLUNKIES.]

"Scarcely was the noise heard when, with one vigorous kick, the tray of
glasses was sent spinning into the air, and the next moment the disputants
were engaged in bloody battle. It was at this moment that our attention was
first drawn towards them, and I need not say with what feelings of interest
we looked on.

"'Hit him, Pat--there, Jem, under the guard! That's it--go in! Well done,
left hand! By Jove! that was a facer! His eye's closed--he's down! Not a
bit of it-how do you like that? Unfair, unfair! No such thing! I say it
was! Not at all--I deny it!'

"By this time we had approached the combatants, each man patting his own
fellow on the back, and encouraging him by the most lavish promises. Now it
was, but in what way I never could exactly tell, that I threw out my right
hand to stop a blow that I saw coming rather too near me, when, by some
unhappy mischance, my doubled fist lighted upon Tom O'Reilly's nose