the skipper, relaxing for
the first time into a grim smile. "Well, then, shape the ship's course
for the Cape Verdes, and, mind you, keep the matter of those scoundrels
deserting as quiet as possible. If some of the passengers get hold of
it, they'll be making a bother. Now you may go, Jennings. Stay, hand
me those letters about the boys that came on board at Plymouth. I've
been too busy to give any thought to them till now. But I must settle
something about them before we reach the Cape, and I may as well do so
now."

The quartermaster obeyed. He handed his commanding officer the bundle
of papers he had indicated, and then left the cabin, willing enough to
be dismissed. The captain, throwing himself with an air of weariness
back on his sofa, broke the seal of the first letter, muttering to
himself discontentedly the while.

"I wonder why I am to be plagued with other people's children? Because
I have been too wise to have any of my own, I suppose! Well, Frank is
my nephew, and blood is thicker than water, they say--and for once, and
for a wonder, say true. I suppose I _am_ expected to look after him.
And he's a fine lad too. I can't but own that. But what have I to do
with old Nat Gilbert's children, I wonder? He was my schoolfellow, and
pulled me out of a pond once, when I should have been drowned if he
hadn't I suppose _he_ thought that was reason enough for putting off his
boy upon me, as his guardian. Humph! I don't know about that. Let us
see, any way, what sort of a boy this young Gilbert is. This is from
old Dr Staines, the schoolmaster he has been with for the last four or
five years. I wonder what he says of the boy? At present I know
nothing whatever about him, except that he looks saucy enough for a
midshipman, and laughs all day like a hyena!

"`Gymnasium House, Hollingsley,

"`September 29th, 1805.

"`Sir,--You are, no doubt, aware that I have had under my charge, for
the last five years, Master George Gilbert, the son of the late Mr
Nathaniel Gilbert, of Evertree, a most worthy and respectable man. I
was informed, at the time of the parent's decease, that you had been
appointed the guardian of the infant; but as Mr Nathaniel had, with his
customary circumspection, lodged a sum in the Hollingsley bank,
sufficient to cover the cost of his son's education for two years to
come, there was no need to trouble you. You were also absent from
England, and I did not know your direction.