"For how much are these gentlemen in your books?" he demanded hotly.
"A small matter, your Lordship,—a mere trifle," said the man, bowing.
"How much, I say?"
"Twenty-two guineas, five shillings, and eight pence, my Lord, counting debts, and board,—and interest," the bailiff glibly replied; for he had no doubt taken off the account when he spied his Lordship's coach. "And I was very good to Mr. Carvel and the captain, as your Lordship will discover—"
"D—n your goodness!" said my Lord, cutting him short.
And he pulled out a wallet and threw some pieces at the bailiff, bidding him get change with all haste. "And now, Richard," he added, with a glance of disgust about him, "pack up, and we'll out of this cursed hole!"
"I have nothing to pack, my Lord," I said.
"My Lord! Jack, I have told you, or I leave you here."
"Well, then, Jack, and you will," said I, overflowing with thankfulness to God for the friends He had bestowed upon me. "But before we go a step, Jack, you must know the man but for whose bravery I should long ago have been dead of fever and ill-treatment in the Indies, and whose generosity has brought him hither. My Lord Comyn, this is Captain John Paul."
The captain, who had been quite overwhelmed by this sudden arrival of a real lord to our rescue at the very moment when we had sunk to despair, and no less astonished by the intimacy that seemed to exist between the newcomer and myself, had the presence of mind to bend his head, and that was all. Comyn shook his hand heartily.