rticularly amused
him.

"What a rum beggar you are, to be sure!" was his disconcerting criticism
when I had finished. "What earthly reason have you for thinking that
this chap, Baxter, has any designs upon your young swell, Beckenham, or
whatever his name may be?"

"What makes you stand by to shorten sail, when you see a suspicious look
about the sky? Instinct, isn't it?"

"That's a poor way out of the argument."

"Well, at any rate, time will show how far I'm right or wrong; though I
don't suppose I shall hear any more of the affair, as I return to
Australia in the _Saratoga_ on Friday next."

"And what are you going to do now?"

"I haven't the remotest idea. My business is completed, and I'm just
kicking my heels in idleness till Friday comes and it is time for me to
set off."

"Then I have it. You'll just come along down to the docks with me; I'm
due back at the old hooker at five sharp. You'll dine with us--pot luck,
of course. Your old friend Riley is still chief officer; I'm second;
young Cleary, whom you remember as apprentice, is now third; and, if I'm
not very much mistaken, we'll find old Donald Maclean aboard too,
tinkering away at his beloved engines. I don't believe that fellow could
take a holiday away from his thrust blocks and piston rods if he were
paid to. We'll have a palaver about old times, and I'll put you ashore
myself when you want to go. There, what do you say?"

"I'm your man," said I, jumping at his offer with an alacrity which must
have been flattering to him.

The truth was, I was delighted to have secured some sort of
companionship, for London, despite its multitudinous places of
amusement, and its five millions of inhabitants, is but a dismal
caravanserai to be left alone in. Moreover, the _Yarraman_'s officers
and I were old friends, and, if the truth must be told, my heart yearned
for the sight of a ship and a talk about days gone by.

Accordingly, we made our way to the docks.

The _Yarraman_, travel-stained, and bearing on her weather-beaten plates
evidences of the continuous tramp-like life she had led, lay well out in
the stream. Having chartered a waterman, we were put on board, and I had
the satisfaction of renewing my acquaintance with the chief officer,
Riley, at the yawning mouth of the for'ard hatch. The whilom apprentice,
Cleary, now raised to the dignity of third officer, grinned a welcome to
me from among the disordered raffle of the fo'c's'le head, while that