“I knew it,” he said eagerly; “you are Captain Ryder?”
“There have been those that have put that style on me,” I answered, amused at his persistence.
“I am glad that I have met you, Captain,” said this young fool, and put his arm in mine quite affectionately.
“I have been unhappily kept much at home, and have seen less than I might of things beyond the hills. Not but what Sussex is a fine shire,” he adds, with a sigh.
“Why, it is fine if so be your home be there,” I replied.
“My home is there,” he said, and paused, and again the frown wrinkled up his brow.
He said no more till we were in the saddle again and had gone some half a mile, and then he spoke, and I knew his poor brain had been playing pitch and toss with some thought.
“Captain Ryder,” he said abruptly, “you have traveled far and seen much. You might advise one junior to you on a matter of worldly wisdom.”
Sink me, thinks I, what’s the boy after? But, says I gravely, from a mutinous face: “You can hang your faith on me for an opinion or a blow, Mr. Masters.”
“Thank you,” says he heartily, and then thrust a hand into his bosom and rapidly stuck at me a document. “Read that, sir,” said he impulsively.