Bunyip Land | Page 7

seemed
to give me confidence, for they showed me how thoroughly satisfied
she was that we would bring my father back.
We were too busy making preparations to the very last for there to be
much time for sadness, till the hour when the old skipper came, and
was shown up to our room.
He came stamping and blundering up in a pair of heavy sea-boots, and

began to salute me with a rough shout, when he caught sight of my pale
delicate-looking mother, and his whole manner changed.
"Lor', I didn't know as there were a lady here," he said in a husky
whisper, and snatching off his battered Panama hat, sticking out a leg
behind, and making a bow like a school-boy. I beg your pardon for
intruding like, mum, but I only come to say that the schooner's warped
out, and that youngster here and Mr Grant must come aboard first thing
in the morning.
He sat down after a good deal of persuasion, and partook of
refreshment--liquid, and copiously. But when, on leaving, my mother
followed him to the door, and I saw her try to make him a present, he
shook his head sturdily.
"No, no," he growled; "I asked my price for the trip, and the doctor
there paid me like a man. Don't you be afeared for young chap there
while he's aboard my craft. While he's with me I'll look after him as if
he was gold. I don't like boys as a rule, for they're a worrit and wants so
much kicking before you can make 'em work, but I've kind of took to
youngster there, and I'll see him through. Good night."
The captain went clumping down the stairs, and we could hear him
clearing his throat very loudly down the street. Then the doctor, with
great delicacy, rose and left us alone, and I tried to look cheerful as I sat
for an hour with my mother before going to bed.
Did any of you who tried to look cheerful when you were going to
leave home for the first time ever succeed, especially with those wistful,
longing eyes watching you so earnestly all the time? I'm not ashamed to
say that I did not, and that I almost repented of my decision, seeing as I
did what pain I was causing.
But I knew directly after that it was pain mingled with pleasure, and
that I was about to do my duty as a son.
Twice over, as I lay half sleeping, I fancied I saw, or really did see,
somebody gliding away from my bedside, and then all at once I found

that it was morning, and I got up, had a miserable breakfast, which
seemed to choke me, and soon after--how I don't know, for it all
seemed very dream-like--found myself on the wharf with my mother,
waiting for the boat that was to take us three travellers to the ship.
Jimmy was there, looking rather uncomfortable in his sailor's suit,
which was not constructed for the use of a man who always sat down
upon his heels. The doctor was there, too, quiet and cheerful as could
be, and I made an effort to swallow something that troubled me, and
which I thought must be somehow connected with my breakfast. But it
would not go down, and I could do nothing but gaze hard as through a
mist at the little delicate woman who was holding so tightly to my
hands. There was a dimness and an unreality about everything. Things
seemed to be going on in a way I did not understand, and I quite started
at last as somebody seemed to say, "Good-bye," and I found myself in
the little boat and on the way to the schooner.
Then all in the same dim, misty way I found myself aboard, watching
the wharf where my mother was standing with a lady friend, both
waving their handkerchiefs. Then the wharf seemed to be slowly
gliding away and getting more and more distant, and then mixed up
with it all came the sound of the bluff captain's voice, shouting orders
to the men, who were hurrying about the deck.
Suddenly I started, for the doctor had laid his hand upon my shoulder.
"We're off, Joe," he said heartily; "the campaign has begun. Now, then,
how do you feel for your work?"
His words electrified me, and I exclaimed excitedly:
"Ready, doctor, ready. We'll find him and bring him back."
CHAPTER THREE.
HOW I MADE MY FIRST CHARGE WITH A LANCE.
We had not been a day at sea before our black follower was in trouble.

As a matter of course the men began joking and teasing him about the
awkward manner in which he wore his sailor's suit,