The captain, greatly enjoying anything in the shape of an irregularity, did as he was bidden, and the two sat and sipped their wine, and Jasper threw off his dry business air and chatted about things in general until Scrivell knocked. Jasper opened the door for him and took an envelope from his hand and carried it to the desk.
"Well?" said the captain, eagerly.
"All right," said Jasper, holding up the bill.
The captain drew a long breath of relief.
"I feel as if I had done it myself," he said, with a laugh. "Poor young beggar, he'll be glad to know he's to get off scot free."
"Ah!" said Jasper. "By-the-way, hadn't you better drop him a line?"
"Right," exclaimed the captain, eagerly; "that's a good idea. May I write it here?"
Jasper pushed a sheet of plain paper before him and an envelope.
"Don't date it from here," he said; "date it from your lodgings. You don't want him to know that anybody else knows anything about it, of course."
"Of course not! How thoughtful you are. That's the best of a lawyer—always keeps his head cool," and he drew up a chair, and wrote not in the best of hands or the best of spelling: