"My very best."

"And now for the conditions. In the first place, you must, in stenographic
phrase, 'extend' my notes, write out the narrative in a legible hand and
good English. If there be any blanks, I will fill them up; if you require
explanations, I will give them. Do you agree?"

"I agree."

"The second condition is that you neither make use of the narrative for
any purpose of your own, nor disclose the whole or any part of it to
anybody until and unless I give you leave. What say you?"

"I say yes."

"The third and last condition is, that you engage to stay with me in your
present capacity until it pleases me to give you your _congé_. Again what
say you?"

This was rather a "big order," and very one-sided. It bound me to remain
with Mr. Fortescue for an indefinite period, yet left him at liberty to
dismiss me at a moment's notice; and if he went on living, I might have to
stay at Kingscote till I was old and gray. All the same, the position was
a good one. I had four hundred a year (the price at which I had modestly
appraised my services), free quarters, a pleasant life, and lots of
hunting--all I could wish for, in fact; and what can a man have more? So
again I said, "Yes."

"We are agreed in all points, then. If you will come into my room "--we