"The judge and jury! What do you mean?" demanded the captain. "You don't think I'm going to—what's-its-name—prosecute?"
"Then what are you here for?" Jasper was going to say, but politely corrected it to "Then what can I do for you?"
"Well, here's the strange part of the story! I went home to find the bill and tear it up——"
Jasper smiled again, and again hid the delicate sneer.
"But if you'll believe me, I couldn't find it! What do you think I'd done with it?"
"I don't know," said Jasper. "Lit your cigar with it!"
"No; in a fit of absence of mind—we'll call it champagne cup and brandy-and-soda!—I'd given it to old Murphy with some other bills in payment of a debt. Think of that! There's that poor young beggar almost out of his mind with remorse and terror, and that old wretch, Murphy, has got that bill! And if it isn't got from him he'll have the law of young—of the boy as sure as Fate is Fate!"
"Yes; I know Murphy," said Jasper with delicious coolness. "He'd be so wild that he'd not rest satisfied until he'd sent your fast young friend across the herring-pond."
"But he mustn't! I should never forgive myself! Think of it, Adelstone! Quite a young boy—a curly-headed young beggar that ought to be forgiven a little thing of this sort!"
"A little thing!" and Jasper laughed.