red a little, and put it back
again unopened. At the same moment Stone burst into the room in a high
state of excitement.

"News that will astonish you!" he cried. "The captain arrived yesterday
evening. His doctors say that the sea-voyage will complete his recovery.
The ship sails to-day--and we are ordered to report ourselves on board
in an hour's time. Where's the bill?"

Cosway pointed to it. Stone took it out of the envelope.

It covered two sides of a prodigiously long sheet of paper. The sum
total was brightly decorated with lines in red ink. Stone looked at the
total, and passed it in silence to Cosway. For once, even Cosway was
prostrated. In dreadful stillness the two young men produced their
pocketbooks; added up their joint stores of money, and compared the
result with the bill. Their united resources amounted to a little more
than one-third of their debt to the landlady of the inn.

The only alternative that presented itself was to send for Mrs. Pounce;
to state the circumstances plainly; and to propose a compromise on the
grand commercial basis of credit.

Mrs. Pounce presented herself superbly dressed in walking costume. Was
she going out; or had she just returned to the inn? Not a word escaped
her; she waited gravely to hear what the gentlemen wanted. Cosway,
presuming on his position as favorite, produced the contents of the two
pocketbooks and revealed the melancholy truth.

"There is all the money we have," he concluded. "We hope you will not
object to receive the balance in a bill at three months."

Mrs. Pounce answered with a stern composure of voice and manner entirely
new in the experience of Cosway and Stone.

"I have paid ready money, gentlemen, for the hire of your horses and
carriages," she said; "here are the receipts from the livery stables
to vouch for me; I never accept bills unless I am quite sure beforehand
that they will be honored. I defy you to find an overcharge in the
account now rendered; and I expect you to pay it before you leave my
house."

Stone looked at his watch.

"In three-quarters of an hour," he said, "we must be on board."

Mrs. Pounce entirely agreed with him. "And if you are not on board," she
remarked "you will be tried by court-martial, and dismissed the service
with your characters ruined for life."

"My dear creature, we haven't time to send home, and we know nobody in
the town," pleaded Cosway. "For God's sake take our watches and jewelry,
and our l