"Are you convinced now, sir?" asked the young man, smiling and standing at attention.
"I am quite convinced, Manton, and I have a proposition to make to you."
He took his visitor into an inner room, and, seated there, he unfolded a little of the plan that had come to him during the watches of the night.
"Manton," he said, "I must get authority before I can accept you as a recruit, but in the meantime," he went on, "I have been thinking of our talk of last night. I like you for trying to earn that hundred and forty-five pounds, and they gave a good account of you at Scarthoe."
"I don't know who had the money, sir, but I'd do anything in the world to pay it back for the honour of the battery."
Captain Gilbert paused, then took a letter from the pocket of his tunic. The envelope was addressed: "Lieutenant Bernard Treves, 15, Sade Road, Lymington."
Gilbert had written this letter earlier that morning. With a certain air of formality he handed it to John Manton and instructed him to deliver it to Lieutenant Treves that evening after dark.
"I have a plan in regard to you, Manton, that I think will work out to your entire satisfaction. I won't tell you what it is until you have seen my friend Treves. But when Treves has read this letter he may, or may not, think it worth his while to pay you the money you need. If he doesn't, please come back to me to-morrow, and we will go on with the matter of your re-enlistment."
"In case Lieutenant Treves decides favourably, sir, what must I do to earn the money?"
"You will learn that from him," answered the Captain. "Go to-night, as unobtrusively as you can," he said. He rose, held out his hand and gripped Manton's fingers cordially in his.