"I have managed that affair for you, Marshall," he said; "and have
arranged it in a way that I am sure will be satisfactory to us
both. You must look upon me now as your creditor instead of
Morrison, and you won't find me a hard one. Here is your cancelled
bill for four hundred and fifty. I got it for three hundred, so
that a third of your debt is wiped off at once. As to the rest, you
can pay me as you intended to pay him, but I don't want you to
stint yourself unnecessarily. Pay me ten or fifteen pounds at a
time at your convenience, and don't let us say anything more about
it."

"But I may be killed," Marshall said, in a voice struggling with
emotion.

"If you are, lad, there is an end of the business. As you know, I
am very well off, and the loss would not affect me in any way. Very
likely you will light upon some rich booty in one of these affairs
with a rebel Rajah, and will be able to pay it all off at once."

"I will if I can, Mallett, though I think that it will be much more
satisfactory to do it out of my savings, except that I shall have
the pleasure of knowing that if I were wiped out afterwards you
would not be a loser."

A few days later Frank Mallett was sent with his company to rout
out a party of rebels reported to be in possession of a large
village twenty miles away. Armstrong was laid up by a slight attack
of fever, and he asked that Marshall should be appointed in his
place on this occasion.