, as I eagerly jumped off my
horse, and letting our negro guide take the reins, ran up the steps to
the front door. The doctor followed slowly. Though the door was open,
I did not like to go in. I waited and waited, and rang two or three
times, and no one came. At last I heard a shuffling in the passage, and
an old black man, dressed in a white shirt and trousers and yellow
slippers, made his appearance. In broken English, with a French accent,
he asked me what I wanted. I told him.

"Oh, Master Coventry! He gone away--no come back for one year, two
years, or more," he replied, with a grin.

I asked him if he knew where Mr Coventry was gone. His notions of
geography were limited; he could not tell. I felt very dispirited.

"But I am his grandson. Is there no one here who can tell me about
him?" I exclaimed.

The negro looked at me hard. "Oh yes, there is Mr Ricama, the steward;
he will tell you all about the master," he answered. "Come in,
gentlemen, come in."

The doctor said, however, that he would prefer waiting under the shade
of the balcony till invited to enter by the officer in command. I
accordingly followed the old black, who showed me into a cool
sitting-room, the floors covered with matting, and furnished with
cane-bottomed sofas and marble tables, the windows opening to the ground
looking out on the sea, whence a delicious breeze came blowing freshly
in. In a short time a tall, dark-skinned man, in a light calico dress,
and with straw hat in hand, came into the room. He bowed as he entered,
and advanced towards me.

"I am the overseer here left in charge by Mr Coventry, whose grandson I
understand you are," he said in very good English. "I shall be glad to
do everything you may wish which is in my power."

"Thank you," I answered. "First, then, tell me where Mr Coventry is; I
am most anxious to see him."

"That is a very difficult question to answer," he replied. "I can tell
you where he was when I last heard from him; but where he now is I
cannot say, and where he may be in another month no man can tell."

"Where was he then?" I asked eagerly.

"In Ceylon. He purposed remaining some time there, but many months have
passed since I last heard of him," was the answer I received.

Here again was a bitter disappointment. If my grandfather was away,
still less likely was I to hear of Alfred. The next question I put to
the overseer was about him.

"Yes, a young midshipman had