"Any'ow," he said. "If you want to marry that girl, Eustace'll manage it for yer. It was 'is job in peace-time—'e'll thank yer for a chance to get back to it. As I says, Aladdin married a princess, an' 'e wasn't no great specimen of a man any more'n what you are. I remember 'is mother was a washerwoman by the name o' Twankey, in the pantomime." "Really?" asked Alf with sudden interest.[Pg 83] "Why, my good ole mother takes in washin', too." [Pg 83] He seemed much cheered by this striking similarity between himself and his prototype. For the first time he seemed to realize that Bill's suggestion might be something more than idle verbiage. "S'posin' you was me, then," he asked. "'Ow'd you set about the business? I ain't got no idea of this 'ere game." "Well, I ain't exactly thought it out meself, but the first thing to do's to get back to Blighty." "That does me in for a start," said Alf hopelessly. "Not a bit. What about our month's re-engagement leave? It's five years next month since you an' me joined the Terriers, an' the Captain says 'e's applied for it, an' we'll get it in time. May be a month or two late, but we'll get it all right. Tell yer what I'll do, though. There's a ole lady in Blighty what sends me books an' papers an' things. I'll get 'er to send me the book about Aladdin, an' we'll see 'ow 'e worked the trick. P'raps we'll pick up a 'int or two that way. But you trust to Eustace an' me. We'll put it all right for you, as soon as we get our leave." Accordingly a letter to the old lady in Blighty was composed and dispatched that same afternoon. The glittering prospect before him filled Alf with as much apprehension as elation. The passion inspired in him by Isobel was a desire of the moth for the star—a distant worship of a goddess who[Pg 84] had vouchsafed him one brief vision of her beauty and had then vanished beyond his ken forever. But Bill's practical common sense had changed all that. Alf found himself called upon to readjust his mental horizon, and to gaze upon a new prospect in which his goddess appeared suddenly changed to mortal form and proportions. [Pg 84] He could not accustom himself all at once to the new conditions. He felt sure that there must be "a catch" in the idea somewhere.
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