"All right," he said. "Stay with me and be damned if you want to! I
daresay it would come to the same thing in the end."

Toby drew himself together with a swift movement. "That means you'll keep
me, sir?"

His eyes, alight and eager, looked up to Saltash with something that was
not far removed from adoration in their shining earnestness.

The strange smile still hovered about Saltash's face; a smile in which
cynicism and some vagrant, half-stifled emotion were oddly mingled.

"Yes, I'll keep you," he said, and paused, looking at him oddly.

Toby's eyes, very wide open, intensely bright, looked straight back. "For
good, sir?" he said anxiously.

And Saltash laughed, a brief, mocking laugh. "For better, for worse, my
Toby!" he said. "Now--go!"

He smote him a light friendly blow on the shoulder and flung round on his
heel.

Toby went, very swiftly, without looking back.




CHAPTER VI