'"Is this your honest, unswayed opinion?" he says.

'"Body o' me! Ask about!" I says. "Any seaman could tell you
'tis true. I'm advising you against my own profit, but why I do so
is my own concern.

'"Not altogether ", he says. "It's some of mine. You've saved
me thirty pounds, Master Dawe, and you've given me good
arguments to use against a willful woman that wants my fine new
ship for her own toy. We'll not have any scroll-work." His face
shined with pure joy.

'"Then see that the thirty pounds you've saved on it are
honestly paid the King," I says, "and keep clear o' women-folk."
I gathered up my draft and crumpled it under my arm. "If that's
all you need of me I'll be gone," I says. "I'm pressed."

'He turns him round and fumbles in a corner. "Too pressed to
be made a knight, Sir Harry?" he says, and comes at me smiling,
with three-quarters of a rusty sword.

'I pledge you my Mark I never guessed it was the King till that
moment. I kneeled, and he tapped me on the shoulder.

'"Rise up, Sir Harry Dawe," he says, and, in the same breath,
"I'm pressed, too," and slips through the tapestries, leaving me
like a stuck calf.

'It come over me, in a bitter wave like, that here was I, a master