casual
manner to me as we were passing the place where she went ashore. 'I was
in her, sir,' he said in the most simple, matter-of-fact manner, 'and me
and a poor little boy about four, was the only ones as was saved.'

"'Good heavens!' I said, 'you are the one man in the world I wanted
particularly to meet I went especially to Sydney, but could not find any
trace of you except your name in the shipping office where you had been
on the _Cassowary_ as an A.B. And I advertised in all the Australian
papers for you and the boy, but you seemed to have vanished off the face
of the earth.'

"'It's very easy to explain, sir,' he said. 'As soon as I got to Sydney,
I went to the Sailors' Home, taking the boy with me. There was hundreds
of people wanted to take him, but I was too fond of the kid to give
him up to anyone. I suppose it was wrong of me, seeing as I have a big
family of my own, which was then living at Newcastle. But I knew the old
woman wouldn't make too many bones about another mouth to feed.'

"Then he went on to say that being afraid the boy would be taken from
him by some of the many people who wanted to adopt him, he slipped
away with him one night from the Sailors' Home, and took him on board a
collier schooner, whose captain he knew, and who was leaving Sydney on
the following morning for Wellington, New Zealand. The skipper of the
vessel consented to take Jimmy away with him, and then bring him to
Newcastle on the return voyage--the collier belonged to, and always
loaded at Newcastle--and hand him over to Mrs Coll. This was done, and
in a few months, although Coll was continually asked by people what had
become of the youngster, he always told the same story--the boy had
been adopted by a family with plenty of money, whose name he was not at
liberty to reveal, etc.

"Then, of course, I told him that I was the son-in-law of Captain
Gerrard, whom he remembered perfectly well, as also your mother and poor
Rayner. We had quite a long talk, and in the end I succeeded in wresting
a promise from him that if 'the old woman' was agreeable to parting with
Jimmy, he would also consent.

"I went to Newcastle with him and saw his wife, who brought the boy to
me. He was quite decently dressed, and got into my heart right away...
And I thought that Lizzie would like him too." His voice dropped, and he
ceased speaking for a few minutes.

"Well, I had a hard struggle to induce the worthy woman to give him up,
but in th