aptain of
his own ship."

They were in the midst of all these mutual confidences, the Captain
chattering away like an old hen clucking round a pair of new-found
chicks, and Bob and Nellie full of glee and exuberant anticipations of
all the coming fun they were going to have afloat and ashore; when,
suddenly, the light of the further window of the railway-carriage,
opposite that near to which the trio were grouped in close confab, was
obscured by a dark body pressing against it from without, as if some one
was trying to gain admittance.

"Hallo!" cried the Captain. "What's that--who's there?"

But, before the old gentleman could rise from his seat, or

Bob and Nellie do anything save gape with astonishment, the window-sash
was violently forced down; and, without a `by your leave' or any word of
warning, a strange uncouth figure, so it seemed to their startled gaze,
came squeezing through the opening and fell on the floor of the carriage
at their feet in a clumsy sprawl.

CHAPTER TWO.

A RUNAWAY.

Nellie half sprang from her seat at this unexpected addition to their
little party, uttering a scream of terror the while, as genuine as it
was shrill and ear-piercing.

She was a slight, delicate-looking girl of twelve, with a shower of
curls of the colour of light gold that rippled over her forehead and
shoulders and down her back, reaching well-nigh to her waist; and it
seemed almost impossible that such a fairy-like little creature could
have uttered such a volume of sound.

However, she did it; and then, satisfied apparently with having exerted
herself so far for the protection of all, Miss Nellie crouched down in
the corner of the carriage behind Bob, who, two years her elder and a
stoutly-built boy for his age, with short-cropped hair of a tawnier
tinge, stood up sturdily in front of his trembling little sister to
defend her, if need be, as manfully as he could.

But, the gallant old Captain was first in the field, jumping forward
with an agility of which neither Bob nor Nellie thought him capable;
and, in an instant, he had clutched hold of the intruder.

"Who the dickens are you?" he cried, shaking him as a terrier would a
rat. "What the dickens do you want here, confound you!"

"Please don't, ma-aster," gasped out a half-suffocated voice. "I be
a'most shook to pieces!"

"Humph! `when taken to be well shaken,' that's what doctors advise, eh?"
said the Captain, somewhat sternly, although with a sl