arters. It did not need Lawyer
Hounsditch's letter to show me how unwise I had been in not making my
way directly home from Buenos Ayres when I had had the chance.

The lawyer reminded me that my mother needed me. He did not say anything
directly--for he was a sly old fellow--but he intimated plainly enough
that he feared Mr. Chester Downes' influence in our home. I was almost a
man grown, he said, even if I was a minor. "Your place is by your
mother's side. The lust for roving was born in you, I suppose," he
wrote, "your father had it, too; but put Duty before Inclination, and
come home at once."

Had I received those three letters when I visited the consulate at
Buenos Ayres, I would have found means of taking the first steamer north
thereafter. Even the romantic idea I had of trying to find my father
would not have set aside what I plainly knew to be my duty.

I was hurt that mother should so cling to Chester Downes as her friend
after all that had happened; yet I could not blame her for what was a
weakness, not a fault. She was the best and dearest little woman on
earth! And she needed me at that very moment, perhaps. Nothing now, I
determined, should keep me from taking passage for home at the very
earliest opportunity.

CHAPTER XXX

IN WHICH I AT LAST SET MY FACE HOMEWARD WITH DETERMINATION

When I came up from the captain's room I stepped out on deck face to
face with my cousin, Paul Downes. He tried to sneak past me, but I
seized him by the shoulder and jammed him up against the side of the
house.

"You lemme go, Clint Webb!" he whined. "I don't want nothing to do with
you--now, I tell you!"

"I bet you don't want anything to do with me," I replied, eyeing him
with some curiosity.

Paul looked as though he had had a hard time of it. He was dressed in
the roughest sort of clothing, he had a bruised face (I fear Ben Gibson
had punished him for disrespect, for Paul was just the sort of a fellow
to try and take advantage of the second mate's youth) and altogether he
was a most disreputable and hang-dog looking creature.

"I'd never come aboard this old tub if I'd known what whaling was like,"
whined Paul. "And now I want you to get this captain to let me off.
You're going home, they tell me."

"I hope to get away about as soon as we arrive as Punta Arenas," I
declared.

"Then I want you to get me away from this place, too. You'll have money
enough to pay both our fares home----"

"Well, I n