Part 62 (2/2)
”He has been telling us about his trouble--that he is dismissed.”
”He need not worry you about it, boy. He should have behaved better.”
”Yes; rank cowardice,” said Joe's father, shortly.
”No, Major; he has been explaining how it was to us, and he tells me it was all accidental. He says we left him behind, and that he searched for us for long enough afterwards, till he was quite lost. It is an awkward place to miss your way in.”
”Yes, you boys ought to know that,” said the colonel. ”Then this man has been getting hold of you to pet.i.tion to stay?”
”Yes, father; he asked us to speak for him.”
”Well, and are you going to?” said the Major.
”Yes, sir; I should like you and my father to give him another trial.”
”But you don't like the man, Gwyn,” said the Colonel.
”No, father--not at all; but I don't like to be prejudiced.”
”And you, Joe,” said the Major, ”don't you want to be prejudiced?”
”No, father; Ydoll here has put it so that I'm ready to back him up.
Dina.s.s says he wants to get on, and doesn't like the idea of leaving a good rich mine.”
”Humph!” said the Colonel. ”We don't want to dismiss men--we want to engage them. What do you say, Jollivet; shall we give him another trial?”
”I think so,” said the Major. ”He's a big, strong, well set up fellow.
Pity to drum a man out of the regiment who may be useful.”
”Yes,” said the Colonel, sharply. ”Well, Gwyn, perhaps we have been too hard on him. He is not popular with the other men, but he may turn out all right, and we can't afford to dismiss a willing worker; so you may tell him that, at the interposition of you two boys, we will cancel the dismissal, and he can stay on.”
”And tell him, boys,” said the Major, ”that he is to do your recommendation credit.”
”Yes, of course,” came in duet, and the boys hurried out to look for Dina.s.s and tell him their news.
”Thank ye, my lads,” he said, smiling grimly. ”I'll stay, and won't forget it.”
That night Dina.s.s wrote a letter to somebody he knew--an ill-spelt letter in a clumsy, schoolboyish hand; but it contained the information that the old mine was rich beyond belief, and that he was beginning to see his way.
Gwyn did not know it then, but he had committed one of the great errors of his life.
CHAPTER THIRTY EIGHT.
SAM HARDOCK BRINGS NEWS.
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