About three o'clock
Ruddy Bill growled something in his beard , while several of the other men drained their pewters and slipped out , intent on discovering whether or no their own domestic bliss were threatened by this new and unexpected danger . From then on , the public bar of The Yellow Ostrich hummed with angry talk and threats of what would happen if the lords , who there gloried and drank deep , should return to their hearths and find manifestations of rebellion . Two of the men , who had gone to investigate the state of their own domestic barometers , were back in half an hour with the news that they too had been locked out from home and beauty . About three o'clock , Ruddy Bill returned , streams of profanity flowing from his lips . Finding himself bolted out , he had broken open the door ; but no one was there . Now he was faced with a threat of ejectment from the landlord , who had heard of the wilful damage to his property , plus the cost of a new door . Several times that afternoon the landlord of The Yellow Ostrich , himself regarded as an epicure in the matter of `` language , '' found it necessary to utter the stereotyped phrase , `` Now gents , if _ you _ please , '' which , with him , meant that the talk was becoming unfit for the fo ` c ` sle of a tramp steamer .