"An ye knew——" began Sherebiah; but he paused, hemmed, and changed his sentence. "All’s well as ends well, Master Harry; I axe your pardon for my free words; and here be a fine stout piece of ash I bought in Fleet Street for your hand. Feel un; ’twill crack a pate as quick as speaken, and I’ll be more easy in mind knowen you have such a good staff in company." "Thanks, Sherry!" said Harry with a laugh, weighing in his hand the stick with which the man presented him. "But I’m a man of peace, you know, eh?—at present. Now let’s to bed." As they went from the room Harry remarked, "By the way, Sherry, how is it that you know Dutch?" "Me know Dutch? Why, sir, what makes ye think I know that outlandish tongue?" "Why, didn’t you tell me just now the meaning of what Mynheer Grootz said to me?" "Ay, so I did, now. It must ha’ been as a dog knows his master’s speech, or just as I knowed the meanen o’ the holy things your good feyther was used to speak in the high pulpit, for egad, word by word I knowed no more than the dead what a’ said, not I." The explanation struck Harry as rather lame, but he merely said, with a laugh: "Well, you’ll make a very faithful watch-dog, Sherry. Good-night! I shall sleep well;—if I don’t dream too much of battle and glory." *CHAPTER VII* *Snared* Hope Deferred—Motes in the Sunbeam—Mynheer makes an Offer—Sherebiah on Guard—New Quarters—Tumblers—Solvitur Ambulando—Doubling—Sick at Heart—Too Late—A Debit Balance—Gloom—Cold Streets—Three Sailors—Muffled