of course.--But come, captain,
something has ruffled you to-day. I thought you did not look in the best
temper the moment I saw you. Every sip you took of your pick-up as you
sat there showed me something was wrong. Tell your worry!'

'Pooh--I can tell you in two words,' said the captain satirically. 'Your
arrangement for my wealth and happiness--for I suppose you still claim
it to be yours--has fallen through. The lady has announced to-day that
she means to send for Somerset instantly. She is coming to a personal
explanation with him. So woe to me--and in another sense, woe to you, as
I have reason to fear.'

'Send for him!' said Dare, with the stillness of complete abstraction.
'Then he'll come.'

'Well,' said De Stancy, looking him in the face. 'And does it make you
feel you had better be off? How about that telegram? Did he ask you to
send it, or did he not?'

'One minute, or I shall be up such a tree as nobody ever saw the like
of.'

'Then what did you come here for?' burst out De Stancy. ''Tis my belief
you are no more than a--But I won't call you names; I'll tell you quite
plainly that if there is anything wrong in that message to her--which
I believe there is--no, I can't believe, though I fear it--you have the
chance of appearing in drab clothes at the expense of the Government
before the year is out, and I of being eternally disgraced!'

'No, captain, you won't be disgraced. I am bad to beat, I can tell you.
And come the worst luck, I don't say a word.'

'But those letters pricked in your skin would say a good deal, it
strikes me.'

'What! would they strip me?--but it is not coming to that. Look here,
now, I'll tell you the truth for once; though you don't believe me
capable of it. I DID concoct that telegram--and sent it; just as a
practical joke; and many a worse one has been only laughed at by honest
men and officers. I could show you a bigger joke still--a joke of
jokes--on the same individual.'

Dare as he spoke put his hand into his breast-pocket, as if the said
joke lay there; but after a moment he withdrew his hand empty, as he
continued:

'Having invented it I have done enough; I was going to explain it to
you, that you might carry it out. But you are so serious, that I will
leave it alone. My second joke shall die with me.'

'So much the better,' said De Stancy. 'I don't like your jokes, even
though they are not directed against myself. They express a kind of
humour which does not sui