"The devil!" exclaimed the Captain, glancing about apprehensively, while I stared at Bentley in surprise, for this was the first I had heard of it. As for Sir Harry Raikes, he dismissed the subject with a careless shrug, and turned his attention to me once more.
"Speaking of Jack Chester," says he, "I begin to fear that leg of his will never mend."
"Ah?" says I, looking him in the eyes for the first time, "yes?"
"Considering the circumstances," he nodded.
"It would seem that your fears were wasted none the less, sir."
"My dear Sir Richard," he smiled, "as I was saying to some one only the other day, an injured arm—or leg for that matter, has often supplied a lack of courage before now."
As he ended, the Captain began to laugh again, but meeting my eye, stopped, for the moment I had waited for had arrived, and I reined round so suddenly as to throw Sir Harry's horse back upon its haunches.
"Damnation!" he cried, struggling with the plunging animal, "are you mad?"
"Do me the favour to dismount," says I, suiting the action to the word, and throwing my bridle to Bentley.
"And what now?" says Raikes, staring.