"Have you met Denham often?" he asked.
"Yes. He was always dodging round the Berry establishment."
"I thought he lived with them."
"No, he had diggings some way off. Berry, so he told me, is a kind of guardian to him."
"Does a man require a guardian at the age of twenty-three?"
"Denham's twenty-five. He's almost the same age as I am, although I look older," said Lancaster; "and I should think, seeing what a fool he is, that he will require a guardian all his life."
"Then you think he's more fool than knave?" asked Eustace, ruminating.
Frank nodded emphatically. "I don't think he's a rascal at all, whatever the Captain may be. Denham's just a silly, good-natured ass, who would give his head away. He has a weak will, and is quite under the thumb of Berry."
"Did you fraternise with Denham?"
"No. His cackle got on my nerves. But he knows me well enough to spot me should I betray myself."