Page:Dapples of the Circus (1943).pdf/228

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"Been a-saving up for that very purpose, have you? Well, you won't have to save up any more. Perhaps God heard your prayers and made me give him to you, or perhaps your Uncle Bingham heard about the horse fund. Well, it doesn't matter," he continued, rubbing his fat hands together happily. "The little horse is yours from this minute. Not only that, but I have engaged passage on the Rio de Janeiro for both you and Sir Wilton in two weeks. I am going to send 'you back right. I shall pay the passage money myself, and I am going to set you two up in business in the United States. Trust me to do a thing right when I do it at all."

Freckles had tried to thank Mr. Bingham, but it seemed to him now, as he sat on the hurricane deck of the steamer which was ploughing her way rapidly toward home, that his words had been all insufficient. He had stammered and blubbered and made a sorry mess of it, but he felt