Next thing we did was to
attend to the honourable Antonio, who was making a great smell frizzling
his face on the red coals. We pushed and rolled him into the creek, and
left the rest to the alligators.
"I was tired. That little scrap took it out of me something awful. The
governor hadn't turned a hair. That's where a gentleman has the pull
of you. He don't get excited. No gentleman does--or hardly ever. I fell
asleep all of a sudden and left him smoking by the fire I had made
up, his railway rug round his legs, as calm as if he were sitting in a
first-class carriage. We hardly spoke ten words to each other after
it was over, and from that day to this we have never talked of the
business. I wouldn't have known he remembered it if he hadn't alluded to
it when talking with you the other day--you know, with regard to Pedro."
"It surprised you, didn't it? That's why I am giving you this yarn of
how he came to be with us, like a sort of dog--dashed sight more useful,
though. You know how he can trot around with trays? Well, he could bring
down an ox with his fist, at a word from the boss, just as cleverly. And
fond of the governor! Oh, my word! More than any dog is of any man."
Schomberg squared his chest.
"Oh, and that's one of the things I wanted to mention to Mr. Jones," he
said. "It's unpleasant to have that fellow round the house so early.
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