TWENTY-SEVEN
Provided His Majesty should so long require your service.
A few men trickled back over to the Drill Hall and began to line up again; some men had not gone to join in the riot and had benefited by jumping up the queue. Even so, there were still a good 30 or so men lined up by the time Edgar joined the end of the line and, shortly after, Jim Comby and Jeb lined up alongside him. Of Robert Patterson and the other clerks who had instigated the riot, nothing was to be seen. Perhaps they had decided to return to face the ire of Rat-Face Ransome. Edgar wondered idly whether young Billy would get his wages docked and what his ma would say.
Not one of them mentioned the attack on the butcher’s shop. It was if it had never happened and Edgar was suffused with a wave of shame and self
