"Why, yes, sir. You've been a father to 'im, sir. Nobody knows that better than me, sir." "We'd both go through fire and water for him, wouldn't we, Christopher?" "Oh, yes, sir; an' if you please, sir, what with these prize fighters at the Manor an' all, I rather think we 'ave, sir." I smiled. "A bad business, but over for good, I think, Christopher. But there are other things, worse in a way--" I paused, scrutinizing the man's homely, impassive face. "Did Master Jerry do much drinking before he went into training, Christopher?" "A little, what any gentleman would, out in the world, sir." "You've noticed it since the fight?" He hesitated. Loyalty was bred in his bone. "Yes, sir." "You know, Christopher, that I've spent my life trying to make Jerry a fine man?" "You 'ave, sir. It's a pity--the--the drink. But it can't 'ave much of a 'old on 'im yet, sir." "Then you _have_ noticed?" "Yes, sir." "When did he begin?" He paused a moment. "I think it was the day after the fight, that very night, to be hexact, sir." "I see. The night after the fight. He spent the evening out and when he came home, was he intoxicated?" "Not then, no, sir. But 'e'd been drinkin', just mildly lit--in a manner o' speakin' sir, not drunk, but gay and kind o' sarcastic-like; not like Master Jerry 'imself, sir." "Had he been with some other gentlemen during the evening?" "No, sir. 'E 'ad been callin' on a lady, but stopped at 'is club on the way around--" "What lady?" "I--I--" "You may speak freely, Christopher. Miss Van Wyck?" "I--I think so, sir. They 'ad an appointment." "I see. And did he drink again that night?" "A few brandies--yes, sir. Ye see, sir, it got to him quick-like--breakin' training so suddent." "I understand. And you put him to bed." "Yes, sir, in a manner o' speakin' I did, sir." "When did you notice his drinking again?" "Not for some days, sir." "And what then?" "The same thing happened again, sir." "I see." I paced the floor silently, my inclination to question further struggling against my sense of the fitness of things. Was not Christopher, after all, a friend as well as a servant, a well-tried friend of Jerry's clan? "Did you connect the fact of Master Jerry's drinking with his visits to the lady I have mentioned, Christopher?" I asked in a moment. He paused a moment scratching his head in perplexity, and then blurted forth without reserve. "I'm glad you've spoken, Mr. Canby. I'm not given to talkin' over Master Jerry's private affairs, sir, but it's all in the family, like, though I wouldn't 'ave Master Jerry know--" "Master Jerry will not know."