"Thanks," he said.
Linton sat down on the table and burst into a torrent of speech.
"You are a man! What did you want to do it for? Where the dickens did you learn to box? And why on earth, if you can win silver medals at Aldershot, didn't you box for the house and smash up that sidey ass Stanning? I say, look here, I suppose we haven't been making idiots of ourselves all the time, have we?"
"I shouldn't wonder," said Sheen. "How?"
"I mean, you did—What I mean to say is—Oh, hang it, you know! You did cut off when we had that row in the town, didn't you?"
"Yes," said Sheen, "I did."
With that medal in his pocket it cost him no effort to make the confession.
"I'm glad of that. I mean, I'm glad we haven't been such fools as we might have been. You see, we only had Stanning's word to go on."
Sheen started.
"Stanning!" he said. "What do you mean?"