A Chinese Command | Page 8

pretty nearly loaded, and hopes to be able to get away at midday the day after to-morrow; so the sooner I am on board the sooner I shall be able to take some of the worry and trouble and work off his shoulders."
"Great Scot!" exclaimed Dick, jumping up, "he wants you to join as soon as that! Why, I fully expected that you wouldn't be leaving under a week at the least. So to-night will be your last sleep in the old bed, for some months to come, at any rate--for I want you to make this place your home again as soon as ever you return. Make the most of it, therefore. You don't know where you may have to lie, in what queer places you may have to sleep, before you get back. Well, I suppose I'll see you in the morning at breakfast; and at any rate you'll be back here after you've interviewed Drake, in order to pack your traps, say good-bye, and so on?"
"Yes, you'll see me at breakfast, Dick; and I shall be back as soon as possible after I have seen the skipper, to pack and to say good-bye. By gad, Dick!" he went on, with a little burst of emotion, "but I'm more than sorry to have to leave you. You've been a mighty good chum to me, and as long as I live I'll never forget your kindness. I wish to goodness you were coming along too."
"So do I, old chap," answered Penryn, gripping his friend's hand; "but as to `goodness' and `kindness' to you, and all the rest of it--why, that's all rot, you know. Any man would do the same for his pal."
"Not every man, Dick," returned Murray, soberly. "If you only knew it, there are not a great many of your sort knocking about nowadays. Good night, again, old chap."
Frobisher slept well, and was not visited by any dreams, sweet or otherwise. We are sometimes told that dreams are sent to us as warnings, as forerunners of events that are to happen to us in the future; but if this is really true it seems strange that Murray's sleep should have been so deep and dreamless. For had that young man been able to foresee but one half of the strange and terrible adventures that were in store for him, it is scarcely to be doubted that he would, in spite of his long period of unemployment, have gladly allowed Captain Drake to take somebody else in his place, notwithstanding the offer of the forty pounds a month salary, and the thousand-pound bonus at the successful termination of the venture.
CHAPTER TWO.
EASTWARD HO!
So soundly and dreamlessly did Frobisher sleep that he did not wake until the clear notes of the dressing bugle--a solemn farce which Dick insisted upon his servant performing when ashore--had almost finished ringing through the little cottage.
Punctually at 8 a.m. the old marine who acted as Dick's servant when he was ashore, and as general housekeeper and caretaker when he was afloat, sounded the bugle as a signal to his master that it was time to turn out; and the neighbours in the houses round about--who, by the way, referred to Penryn as "that very eccentric young man"--had come to look upon the instrument somewhat in the light of a town clock; so much so that several of them set their watches by it, and one old gentleman was in the habit of leaving his front door and sprinting for the eight-fifteen train to town punctually upon the first note.
Frobisher sat up in bed with a yawn, and was half-way to the bath-room before he was sufficiently wideawake to recollect that this morning was different from the three hundred and sixty-five odd preceding mornings. But as he remembered that at last he had secured the offer of regular and profitable employment--although not quite along the lines he had hoped for--he let out a whoop of rejoicing that made the cottage ring.
Having completed his toilet, Frobisher came downstairs whistling, to find Penryn standing in front of the fire, warming his coat tails and sniffing hungrily, while from the direction of the kitchen came certain savoury smells.
"'Morning, Murray!"
"'Morning, Dick!" was the response. "What's for breakfast this morning?"
"Don't know," answered his friend, "but it smells like eggs and bacon, and steak and mushrooms, and chops and kidneys on toast. I hope so, at any rate, for I'm hungry this morning, and feel quite ready for a snack."
"Snack!" laughed Frobisher. "Is what you have just mentioned your idea of a snack? It sounds to me more like the menu of an aldermanic banquet. By the way, I didn't know the parcel-postman had arrived yet; he's early, isn't he?"
"Oh," replied Dick, turning rather red, "I thought I'd put that away. No,