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said, "Then, under the present circumstances - I know it is damned officious, but if she has no one else, ought one not speak to him? Of the child, I mean," he added awkwardly.

"Why, what is there for him to do?" Warren said. "If it is a girl, God willing, the Corps needs her with both hands; and if it is a boy, he could go to sea instead, I suppose; but whatever for? It can only hurt him there, to be a by-blow, and meanwhile a captain's son in the Corps is pretty sure to get a dragon, if he has any merit of his own."

"But that is what I mean," Laurence said, puzzled to find himself so misunderstood. "There is no reason the child must be illegitimate; they might easily be married at once."

"Oh, oh," Warren said, dawning wonder, confusion. "Why, Laurence, no; there's no sense in it, you must see that. If she had been grounded, it might have answered; but thank God, no need to think of that anymore, or anything like," and he jerked his chin gladly at the tightly lidded box which held the fruits of their day's labors, to be carried back to Capetown in the morning: Lily would certainly be the next recipient. "A comfortable wife she would make him, with orders to follow and a dragon to look after; I dare say they would not see one another one year in six, him posted to one side of the world and she to the other, ha!"

Laurence was little satisfied to find his sentiments so unaffectedly laughed at, but more so for the uncomfortable sensation that there was some rational cause for so dismissive an answer; and he was forced to go to sleep with his resolution yet unformed.

Chapter 9

MR. KEYNES," CATHERINE said, cutting through the raised voices, "perhaps you will be so good as to explain to us what alternative you prefer, to Mr. Dorset's suggestion."

Experience had improved on their rate of return, a little, and Nitidus had carried their spoils back to Capetown daily; so they returned, after a tired and dusty week, to find Lily dosed, Messoria and Immortalis also, and a small and putrid heap of mushrooms yet remaining. Of these, two had been preserved in oil, two in spirits of wine, two only wrapped in paper and oilcloth, and the lot boxed neatly up with the receipt for the cure. They would be sent back to England by the Fiona, which had been held back this long for their report: she would go with the tide.

But there was no sentiment of triumph at their dinner back, only muted satisfaction; at best the results of all their hunting would not do for more than three dragons; six if the surgeons back in Dover took the risk of halving the dose, or used it on smaller beasts, and that only if all three methods preserved whatever virtue the mushrooms held; Dorset would have liked to dry some, also, but there were not enough of them for this final experiment.

"Well, we are not going to do any better, not unless we hire an army of men and hounds; and where to get them, you may tell me and much obliged," Warren said, holding the bottle in one hand as he drained his glass in the other, so he might refill the tumbler straight away. "Nemachaen is a clever little beast," meaning the dog, who had acquired this grandiose name after the lion, courtesy of some of the younger ensigns presently being subjected to a haphazard education in the classics, "but there is only so much blasted forest we can hack through in a day, to find one mushroom or two at a time when we need scores of the things."

"We must have more hunters," Laurence said, but they were rather in danger of losing those they had; the agreed-on week having passed, Demane gave signs of wishing for himself and Sipho to be returned to their home village with their reward. Laurence with many unpleasant pangs of conscience had refused to immediately understand his signs, and instead had taken him to see the pen near the castle, where the cow had been set aside: a large, handsome milch cow, placid, with her six-months' calf browsing the grass beside her; the boy ducked through the fence slats and slipped in to touch her soft brown side with cautious, almost wary delight. He looked at the calf, and back at Laurence,