And my wages, sir,' said Mark in high glee, 'pays your
passage; and I've put the rolling-pin in your berth to take it (it's
the easy one up in the corner); and there we are, Rule Britannia, and
Britons strike home!'
'There never was such a good fellow as you are!' cried Martin seizing
him by the hand. 'But what do you mean by "doing" Mr Bevan, Mark?'
'Why, don't you see?' said Mark. 'We don't tell him, you know. We take
his money, but we don't spend it, and we don't keep it. What we do is,
write him a little note, explaining this engagement, and roll it up,
and leave it at the bar, to be given to him after we are gone. Don't you
see?'
Martin's delight in this idea was not inferior to Mark's. It was all
done as he proposed. They passed a cheerful evening; slept at the hotel;
left the letter as arranged; and went off to the ship betimes next
morning, with such light hearts as the weight of their past miseries
engendered.
'Good-bye! a hundred thousand times good-bye!' said Martin to their
friend. 'How shall I remember all your kindness! How shall I ever thank
you!'
'If you ever become a rich man, or a powerful one,' returned his friend,
'you shall try to make your Government more careful of its subjects when
they roam abroad to live.
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