Part 41 (2/2)

added Shank, with a laugh, ”before this evening I would have doubted whether he would be willing to remain with me after your departure, but I have no doubt now--considering what we have just witnessed!”

”Yes, he has found `metal more attractive,'” said Charlie, rising. ”I will now go and consult with him, after which I will depart without delay.”

”You've been having a gallop, to judge from your heightened colour and flas.h.i.+ng eyes,” said Charlie to d.i.c.k when they met in the yard, half-an-hour later.

”N-no--not exactly,” returned the seaman, with a slightly embarra.s.sed air. ”The fact is I've bin cruisin' about in the bush.”

”What! lookin' for Redskins?”

”N-no; not exactly, but--”

”Oh! I see. Out huntin', I suppose. After deer--eh?”

”Well, now, that was a pretty fair guess, Charlie,” said d.i.c.k, laughing.

”To tell ye the plain truth, I have been out arter a dear--full sail-- an'--”

”And you bagged it, of course. Fairly run it down, I suppose,” said his friend, again interrupting.

”Well, there ain't no `of course' about it, but as it happened, I did manage to overhaul her, and coming to close quarters, I--”

”Yes, yes, _I_ know,” interrupted Charlie a third time, with provoking coolness. ”You ran her on to the rocks, d.i.c.k--which was unseamanlike in the extreme--at least you ran the dear aground on a fallen tree and, sitting down beside it, asked it to become Mrs Darvall, and the amiable creature agreed, eh?”

”Why, how on earth did 'ee come for to know _that_?” asked d.i.c.k, in blazing astonishment.

”Well, you know, there's no great mystery about it. If a bold sailor _will_ go huntin' close to the house, and run down his game right in front of Mr Shank's windows, he must expect to have witnesses.

However, give me your flipper, mess-mate, and let me congratulate you, for in my opinion there's not such another dear on all the slopes of the Rocky Mountains. But now that I've found you, I want to lay some of my future plans before you.”

They had not been discussing these plans many minutes, when Mary was seen crossing the yard in company with Hunky Ben.

”If Hunky would only stop, we'd keep quite jolly till you return,”

observed d.i.c.k, in an undertone as the two approached.

”We were just talking of you, Ben,” observed Charlie, as they came up.

”Are you goin' for a cruise, Miss Mary?” asked the seaman in a manner that drew the scout's attention.

”No,” replied Mary with a little laugh, and anything but a little blush, that intensified the attention of the scout. He gave one of his quiet but quick glances at d.i.c.k and chuckled softly.

”So soon!” he murmured to himself; ”sartinly your sea-dog is pretty slick at such matters.”

d.i.c.k thought he heard the chuckle and turned a lightning glance on the scout, but that st.u.r.dy son of the forest had his leathern countenance turned towards the sky with profoundest gravity. It was characteristic of him, you see, to note the signs of the weather.

”Mr Brooke,” he said, with the slow deliberate air of the man who forms his opinions on solid grounds, ”there's goin' to be a bu'st up o' the elements afore long, as sure as my name's Hunky.”

”That's the very thing I want to talk about with you, Ben, for I meditate a long journey immediately. Come, walk with me.”

Taking the scout's arm he paced with him slowly up and down the yard, while d.i.c.k and Mary went off on a cruise elsewhere.

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