Galloping Dick
tion, he used me with such contumely that I was hard put to it to keep from his cravat. He cross-questioned me sharply, and when I stuck to my story, turning on his heels without further words, called one of his servants to bring Sir Ralph Leybourne. I smiled to myself to imagine his astonishment upon seeing me there in the Governor’s room and about this business, but indeed upon his entrance he disordered me with his first shot.
“Hullo!” cries he, quite gaily. “What, my pet knight-errant in this respectable company! Captain Ryder,” says he, shaking his finger at me, “ha’ you come for the bottle I owe you, that you figure thus boldly in the precincts of justice?”
“What, do you know this fellow?” says the Governor in an amaze.
Sir Ralph peers at me roguishly. “Well, sir,” said he, “if my eyes be still in my head, it should be a truculent gentleman whom I met yester morning at the Three Thorns out of Eckhurst.”
“Ah,” says the Governor. “Well you shall
76
