Syd Belton | Page 3

some one to enter.
"Doctor Liss, sir," he said quietly; and a quick, eager-looking little man
in snuff-coloured coat and long, salt-box-pocketed waistcoat entered
the room, handing his cocked hat and stick to the butler, and nodding
pleasantly from one to the other.
"Who was that shouting for the doctor?" he said cheerily, as he rubbed
his hands; then took out a gold snuff-box, tapped it, opened it, and
handed it to the captain.
"You, wasn't it, Sir Thomas? Touch of your old enemy?"
"No," grunted the admiral, "I'm sound as a roach. Bah!"
"Thankye, Liss," said the captain, taking his pinch, and handing back
the box; "sit down. Syd, pass those clean glasses."
The admiral took a pinch, and then the new-comer took his, loudly
snapped-to the box, and drew out a delicate cambric handkerchief to
flap off some snuff from his shirt-frill.
As soon as the doctor was comfortably seated the port was passed, and
then there was silence, Sydney looking from one to the other, and
wondering what was coming next.

The doctor, too, looked from one to the other and formed his own
opinion.
"Hullo!" he said. "In disgrace, Sydney? What have you been doing,
sir?"
"Eating walnuts," said the boy, mischievously.
"And defying his father and uncle--a dog!" cried the admiral. "Here,
Liss; what do you think he says?"
"Bless me! I don't know."
"Why, confound him! says he wants to be a doctor."
"Does he?" cried the new-comer, turning to look at Sydney. "Well, I'm
not surprised."
"But I am," cried Captain Belton, angrily.
"And I'm astounded," said the admiral. "A Belton descend to being an
apothecary."
"Ah!" said the doctor, dryly, as he held his glass up to the light,
"terrible descent, certainly. Wants to save life instead of destroying it."
"Now, look here, Liss," began the admiral, fiercely.
"No, no, Tom, let me speak," said Captain Belton. "No quarrelling."
"No, you had better not quarrel," said the doctor, good-humouredly.
"Make you both ill, and then I shall have you at my mercy."
"Indeed you will not," said the admiral, "for I'll call in old Marchant
from Lowerport."
"Not you," cried the doctor, laughing; "you dare not. I'm the only man
who understands your constitution."

"There, there, there!" cried the captain, "that's enough. But really, sir,
it's too bad. As an old friend I did not think you would lead my boy
astray."
"I? Astray? Nonsense!"
"But you have, sir. You've taken him out with you on your rounds, and
the young dog thinks of nothing else but doctoring."
"And pill-boxes and gallipots," said the admiral, fiercely.
"Now, my dear old friends, you are not talking sense," said the doctor,
quietly. "Sydney has been my rounds with me a good deal, and he has
certainly displayed so much interest in all my surgical cases, that if he
were my boy I should certainly make him a doctor."
"Impossible!" cried the captain.
"Not to be heard of," said Sir Thomas. "He's going to sea."
Sydney, who had been fidgeting about in his chair, gave a sudden kick
out with his right leg, and felt something soft as his uncle uttered a
savage yell, and thrust his chair back from the table.
"I--I beg your pardon, uncle, I did not know that--"
"You did, sir," cried the old man furiously, as he shook his fist at the
boy. "You did it maliciously; out of spite, because I want to make a
man of you. Bless me, Harry," he continued, "if you don't take that
young scoundrel out into the hall and thrash him, I'll never darken your
doors again. Dear--dear--dear--dear! Bless my soul! Ah!"
The poor old admiral had risen, and was limping about when Sydney
went after him.
"Uncle," he began.
"Bah!" ejaculated the old man, grasping him by the collar. "Here he is,
brother Harry; I've got him. Now then, take him out."

"I'm very sorry, uncle," said Sydney. "I didn't know it was your gouty
leg there."
"Then, you did do it on purpose, sir?"
"No, I didn't, uncle. I wouldn't have been such a coward."
"Of course he wouldn't," said the doctor. "But there, sir, sit down; the
pain is gone off now."
"How do you know?" cried the admiral. "It's as if ten thousand red-hot
irons were searing it. Harry, you've spoiled that boy."
"No, I join issue there," said Captain Belton. "You've indulged him ten
times more than ever I have, Tom."
"It is not true, brother Harry," said the admiral, limping to his chair.
"Oh yes, it is. Hasn't your uncle spoiled you, Sydney, far more than I
have?"
"No, father," replied the boy, quietly, as he helped the old admiral to sit
down, and placed an ottoman under his injured leg.
"Thankye, boy, thankye. And you're not so bad as