Dowsett said gently.
"Why, else, should you have gone up that ladder, when, to all
seeming, there was no one there. The maids were so frightened, John
says, that they would never have said a word about there being anyone
in that room, and the girls would have perished had you not gone up.
Now as, owing to that, everything has turned out according to your
wishes, it would be a sin not to take advantage of it, for you may be
sure that, as the way has thus been suddenly opened to you, so will
all other things follow in due course."
"Thank you, madam," Cyril said simply. "I had not thought of it in
that light, but assuredly you are right, and I will not suffer myself
to be daunted by the difficulties there may be in my way."
John Wilkes now came in and sat down to the meal. He was vastly
pleased when he heard of the good fortune that had befallen Cyril.
"It seems to me," Cyril said, "that I am but an impostor, and that at
least some share in the good luck ought to have fallen to you, John,
seeing that you carried them all down the ladder."
"I have carried heavier bales, many a time, much longer distances
than that--though I do not say that the woman was not a tidy weight,
for, indeed, she was; but I would have carried down ten of them for
the honour I had in being shaken by the hand by Prince Rupert, as
gallant a sailor as ever sailed a ship. No, no; what I did was all in
a day's work, and no more than lifting anchors and chains about in
the storehouse.
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