“For once in his life!” said Alick, with a boisterous laugh. “Go on, I am listening.”
“In the first place,” said Captain Jack, beginning to invent a string of lies, “in the first place I took the fifteen hundred pounds—”
“Two thousand pounds was the sum I gave you.”
“Ahem—beg pardon—so it was—I forgot all about it at the moment. Well, I took the two thousand pounds directly you gave it to me, and mounted my horse, so as to make all the haste I could in order to return and see the famous game between old Gingles—”
“Sir?”
“I beg pardon; I should have said Captain Death-wing and his friend Alick.”
“Well?”
“I paid Colonel Blood £1,000 for his share.”
“Did he give you a receipt?”
“Why, no, I was in such a hurry I forgot to ask for one.”