Chapter Twenty Five.
Jerry to the Front.
Dick Smithson found himself face to face with a problem that grew harder to solve the more he tried, and, as he lay awake at night, the words of the old, old ballad used to come to him:—
“And for as you have made your bed, so on it you must lie.”
A barrack bed, too—a very hard, thin, single Glo’ster-cheese sort of bed! And yet it seemed at the first sight so easy to jump out of it, go and see the colonel—no; he could talk to Lieutenant Lacey, who was always so friendly, and that gentleman would tell the colonel.
Oh, it would be simple enough! So long as it meant his voluntary exile, it was not of so much consequence; and he had always kept in reserve the time when he could go back to his old position in society. But now he found that when he leaped down it was from a high perpendicular rock, and the base of that rock stood in. Around, too, it was smooth; and, now jumping back was out of the question, climbing appeared impossible.
What was to be done? He could not sit still and let Mark hold his title and position without a struggle; but how to begin?
Naturally enough, the old state of calm passed away, and Dick’s brain was in a state of effervescence as he waited three days for an opportunity to meet and consult with Jerry Brigley. For this had been planned at parting, after Jerry had sworn to be silent until some plan of action had been decided upon.
At last Jerry and he met again, and this time went off for a walk towards the country, accidentally taking the road which Dick had followed when he first entered the town.