A good clever lie of this sort would raise The
Lifter more in my estimation than if he were able to repeat the
Forty-Nine articles off by heart, or begin in the Vulgate with
'_Pater Noster, qui es in Caelis,_' and go through without
drawing his breath to '_Sed libera nos a malo._'
'I accept your explanation,' the Captain said, and The Lifter
hurried away on his errand to town.
The books were little short of a blessing to Roland; and when
nothing else was to be done in winter, he sat in his sleeping-room
--which was the one best ventilated among the lot--and read by the
light of a candle. How often he laid the book upon his knee and
sighed, thinking of his beloved Aster, wondering how she had regarded
his letter. In this way many a dreary week went on during which he
grew pale and weak from pining and incarceration.
When The Lifter's arm became well, that repentant and unwilling
robber was obliged to make up for lost time. His first most important
enterprise was to obtain entrance into the house of a large cattle
dealer in York, the testy old person by the way, whose negro servant
he had endeavoured in vain to rob upon the highway.
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