"I will keep a quiet tongue in my head, and no one shall hear anything, from me, as to how I got this slice on my shoulder. I will just say that it was a bit of a scrimmage I got into, with two or three of the street rascals; and the thing is so common that no one is likely to ask any further questions about it."
After the parade was over, O'Neil and O'Sullivan came up to Desmond's quarters.
"Now, Master Kennedy, we have come to receive your confession. We gave you credit for being a quiet, decent boy, and now it seems that you and that man of yours have been engaged in some disreputable riot, out all night, and coming in on two strange horses, which, for aught we know, have been carried off by force of arms."
Desmond laughed.
"As to the horses, you are not so far wrong as one might expect, O'Neil. We rode them this morning from Versailles."
"From Versailles!" O'Neil repeated. "And what, in the name of all the saints, took you to Versailles! I am afraid, Desmond, that you are falling into very evil courses.
"Well, tell us all about it. I shall be glad to be able to believe that there is some redeeming feature in this strange business."
Desmond laughed, and then said, more seriously, "Well, I have had an adventure. Other people were concerned in it, as well as myself. I have made up my mind to tell you both, because I know that I can depend upon your promises to keep it an absolute secret."
"This sounds mysterious indeed," O'Sullivan said. "However, you have our promises. O'Neil and I will be as silent as the grave."
"Well, then, you know how you were chaffing me, the other day, about finding Mademoiselle Pointdexter?"