He poured them each a great big waterglassful of the rot-gut he usually drank, and, beaming madly, toasted, “Prost!”

There is no health; physicians say that we At best enjoy but a neutrality.

Accurſt be he that firſt inuented war

At the very moment he cried out, David realised that what he had run into was only the Christmas tree. Disgusted with himself at such cowardice, he spat a needle from his mouth, stepped back from the tree and listened. There were no sounds of any movement upstairs: no shouts, no sleepy grumbles, only a gentle tinkle from the decorations as the tree had recovered from the collision.