“You have done a great service in giving me this so promptly, and I shall be happy if I can serve you in return.”
“I was too proud to be entrusted with it, sir.”
“Then you are one of the writer’s many admirers, I presume?”
“Yes, sir. There is no man I admire so much or would like to serve more.”
Mr Martin looked at Ned keenly for some time without speaking, then he said—
“The writer of that note tells me I may trust you and your companions. He is seldom wrong in his reading of character, and in this instance my own opinion agrees with his, respecting you at least. I haven’t seen your chums yet.”
“You may safely trust us all to the death, sir, in anything honourable. We have sworn to stick together.”
“To the death, you say! Well, I may even want as desperate a pledge as that. But can I trust your temper and discretion?”
Ned blushed as he remembered his afternoon fit of passion, but he replied firmly—
“I hope so, sir.”