My interest awoke in an instant. If Sampayo had sent him to me, it was probably to learn the issue of the previous night’s scheme.
“No no. I shan’t be able to get away for a long time to come.”
“Then I wonder why the deuce—I’m awfully glad to hear it. Then you won’t be taking your boat away?”
“Of course not. But I’m afraid the weather yesterday made your trip in her rather unpleasant.”
“Not a bit of it. The fact is I—I came to ask you a favour. I wonder if you’d mind lending her to me for a day. As a matter of fact I want to give some of the fellows of my regiment a bit of an outing, and I should like to take ’em out in her.”
He said all this with the air of one repeating a lesson and very much afraid of forgetting it. “My dear lieutenant, you can have her and welcome. Give me a couple of days’ notice, that’s all.”
“Thanks. I’m afraid you’ll think it cool of me.”
“Not cool of you at all; but I think Major Sampayo himself might have asked, instead of worrying you to do it.”
He sat bolt upright and stared at me. “I say, how the deuce did you know?” he cried, astonishment shaking all the pretence out of him.
“Never mind that. You can have the Stella,” I answered, with a smile, intending him to infer that I knew much more.