He seems to consider that he is
responsible for me in all respects, and if he had been master and I
man he could not have behaved with grosser despotism."
"I am glad to see you looking so well, O'Connor," Ralph said, shaking
his captain warmly by the hand.
"I don't know whether I do right in shaking hands with you, Conway,"
O'Connor said. "I have been thinking it over while I have been lying
there, and I have come to the conclusion that it's you I have to thank
for this affair altogether."
There was a general laugh. "How do you make that out?" Ralph asked.
"It's clear enough, now my eyes are opened. It was you who discovered
that passage, and when you did so you said at once to yourself, now, I
will get O'Connor and Desmond to go down this place, they are safe to
break their necks, and then I shall get all the honor and glory of the
affair. And so it came about. There were Desmond and I lying on the
top of each other with the breath knocked clean out of our bodies,
while you were doing all the fighting and getting the credit of the
affair. I appeal to all friends here if it is not a most suspicious
affair."
There was a chorus of agreement. "We did not think it of you, Conway;"
"A most disgraceful trick;" "Ought to be sent to Coventry;" "Ought to
be drummed out of the regiment;" mingled with shouts of laughter.
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