"I don't need to be told," returns the trooper, taking his pipe from his lips for a moment and carrying his eyes back from following the progress of the cushion to the pipe-bowl which is burning low, "that he carried on heavily and went to ruin. I have been at his right hand many a day when he was charging upon ruin full-gallop. I was with him when he was sick and well, rich and poor. I laid this hand upon him after he had run through everything and broken down everything beneath him--when he held a pistol to his head."
"I wish he had let it off," says the benevolent old man, "and blown his head into as many pieces as he owed pounds!"
"That would have been a smash indeed," returns the trooper coolly; "any way, he had been young, hopeful, and handsome in the days gone by, and I am glad I never found him, when he was neither, to lead to a result so much to his advantage. That's reason number one."
"I hope number two's as good?" snarls the old man.

"I don't need to be told," returns the trooper, "that he carried on heavily and went to ruin. I have been at his right hand many a day when he was charging upon ruin full-gallop. I was with him when he was sick and well, rich and poor. I laid this hand upon him after he had run through everything and broken down - when he held a pistol to his head."
"I wish he had let it off," says the benevolent old man, "and blown his head into as many pieces as he owed pounds!"
"That would have been a smash indeed," returns the trooper coolly. "Anyway, he had been young, hopeful, and handsome in the days gone by, and I am glad I never found him, to lead to his being imprisoned. That's reason number one."
"I hope number two's as good?" snarls the old man.
