By Conduct and Courage: A Story of the Days of Nelson

“It is a longish story,” Will replied, “too long to tell straight off. Besides, I want to ask some questions. When did you come home? Have you come for good? If not, how long are you going to stay? though I am sorry to say that the length of your visit can affect me comparatively little, for I am appointed second-lieutenant of the Jason, and must join in a few days.”

“I congratulate you very heartily, Will,” Mr. Palethorpe said. “You are fortunate indeed to get such promotion so early.”

“I am most fortunate, sir. Though just at present I feel inclined to wish that it hadn’t come quite so soon.”

“In answer to your question, Will, I can say that we are home for good. I have disposed of my estate and wound up my business, principally, I think, because this little girl had made up her mind that she should like England better than Jamaica.”

“I am glad to hear that, sir. I shall have something to look forward to when I return to England.”

“Where are you staying?”

“At the Golden Cross.”

“Well, then, you must go and fetch your luggage here at once. It would be strange indeed if you were to be staying at any house but mine while you are in London.”

As he saw that the planter would not hear of a refusal, Will gladly accepted the invitation, and, taking a fly, drove to the hotel, paid his bill, and took his things away.

CHAPTER XVII

ON BOARD THE “JASON”

“I won’t ask you for your story till after dinner,” Mr. Palethorpe said. “To enjoy a yarn one needs to be comfortable, and I feel more at home in my arm-chair in the dining-room than I do in this room, with all its fal-lals. You see, I have taken the house furnished. When I settle down in a home of my own, I can assure you it will look very different from this. In fact I have one already building for me. It is at Dulwich, and will be as nearly as possible like my house in Jamaica. Of course there will be differences. I at first wished to have the same sort of veranda, but the architect pointed out that while in Jamaica one requires shade, here one wants light. So they are getting large sheets of glass specially made for putting in instead of wood above the windows. Then, of course, we want good fireplaces, whereas in Jamaica a fire is only necessary for a few days in the year. There are also other little differences, but on the whole it will remind me of the place I had for so many years.”

“The house will have one advantage over that in Jamaica, Mr. Palethorpe.”

“What is that?” he asked.

“You will be able to go to bed comfortably without fear of having the roof taken from over your head by a hurricane.”

“Ah! that is indeed a matter to which I have not given sufficient consideration, but it is certainly a very substantial advantage, as we have all good reason to know.”

“I never think of it without shuddering,” Alice said. “It was awful! It seemed as if there was an end of everything! I think it was the memory of that night that first set me thinking of going to England.”

“Then I cannot but feel grateful to that hurricane, for if you had remained out there it is probable that I should never have met you again.”

“I am having a large conservatory built so that we can have greenness and flowers all the year,” Mr. Palethorpe remarked presently.

“I should think that would be charming. I hope you will be settled at Dulwich long before I come back from my next cruise.”

“Well, I don’t know that I can say the same, Will. I hope your next cruise will be a short one.”

When dinner was over, the chairs were drawn up to the fire, and Will related his adventures since his return from the West Indies.

“Have you heard of your two favourite sailors?” Alice interrupted.

“Dimchurch and Tom Stevens? No, I have not. I shall feel lost without them at sea, and sincerely hope that I may some day run against them, in which case I am sure, if they are free, they will join my ship.”

“How terribly cut up they must have been,” the girl said,“when they got down to the beach and found that you were missing!”

“I am sure they would be,” he replied. “I expect the rest of the men almost had to hold them back by force.”

“Well, go on. You were hit and made prisoner.”

Will went on with his story till he came to his escape from Verdun.

“What was she like?” the girl asked. “I expect she was very pretty.”

“No, not particularly so. She was a very pleasant-looking girl.”

“I can imagine she seemed very pleasant to you,” the girl laughed; “and, of course, before you got out of the window and climbed to the top of the house you kissed her, didn’t you?”

“Yes, I did,” Will said. “Of course she expected to be kissed. I am not at all used to kissing. In fact, I only experienced it once before, and then I was a perfectly passive actor in the affair.”

The girl flushed up rosily.

“You drew that upon yourself, Alice,” her father said.“If you had left him alone he would not have brought up that old affair.”

“I don’t care,” she said. “I was only thirteen, and he had saved my life.”

“You didn’t do it again, my dear, I hope, when you met him in the street to-day.”

“Of course not!” she exclaimed indignantly. “The idea of such a thing!”

“Very well, let this be a lesson to you not to enquire too strictly into such matters.”

“Ah! I will bear it in mind,” she said.

“I can assure you, Alice, that it was a perfectly friendly kiss. She was engaged to be married to a young soldier who was a prisoner at Porchester, and during the past week I have been employed in setting him free, as you will hear presently. I promised her I would do so if possible, and of course I kept my word.”

“What! you, an English officer, set a French prisoner free! I am shocked!” Mr. Palethorpe said.

“I would have tried to set twenty of them free if twenty of their sweethearts had united to get me away from prison.”

They laughed heartily at the story of his escape as a pedlar, and were intensely interested in his account of the manner in which he succeeded in getting a despatch from the agent of the British Government at Amsterdam. He continued the narrative until his arrival in England.

“Now we shall hear, I suppose, how this British officer perpetrated an act of treason against His Most Gracious Majesty.”

“Well, I suppose it was that in the eyes of the law,” Will laughed. “Fortunately, however, the law has no cognizance of the affair, at any rate not of my share in it. I don’t suppose it has been heard of outside Porchester. As His Gracious Majesty has some forty thousand prisoners in England, the loss of one more or less will not trouble his gracious brain.”

He then related the whole story of Lucien’s escape.

“I should have liked to see you dressed up like a pedlar, with your face all painted, and a wig and whiskers,” the girl said, “though I don’t suppose I should have recognized you in that disguise to-day.”

“It was a capitally-managed plan, Will, and had it been for a legitimate object I should have given it unstinted praise. And so you saw him fairly off from England?”

“Yes; and by this time I have no doubt he is on the top of a vehicle of some sort, going as fast as horses can gallop to join his sweetheart.”

“I wonder,” Alice said mischievously, “whether she will ever tell him of that kiss at the window.”