"Trust me. And now I shall advise you to keep very quiet until the answer comes. There is nothing to be gained by knocking yourself up, and everything, whichever way you look at it, by being calm."
"But, Murkard, for the life of me I don't understand how you managed it. No family in the world would advance such a sum without full and strict inquiry."
"Can you trust me, Ellison?"
"Implicitly—but——"
"There must be no 'buts,' I have taken the matter in hand. The Government Resident, who believes in me, strangely enough, has guaranteed the authenticity of what I have said. I have put the matter clearly before your family, and I leave it to their sense of justice to do what we ask. Remember if, as I said last night, there is any blame to be incurred by anyone, I take it."
"Murkard, I am not fit to look you in the face. I am a cur of the worst kind."
"Hush! hush! you mustn't say such things of yourself."
"But I mean it! I mean every word I say! I am not fit to——"
"Whatever you are, Cuthbert, I don't want to know it. I have told you before, and I tell you again, our destinies, yours and mine, are one. Come what may, I must help you."
"You have been the truest friend that mortal man ever had."