‘Don’t tell me any more,’ pleaded Hermione. ‘I can’t bear it.’
‘And they say that if he was arrested he could be thrown into prison for offences against maritime law—whatever that may be. He _was_ arrested at Honolulu, and was a prisoner upon a British man-of-war.’
‘Yes!’ cried Vanda; ‘but they couldn’t prove anything against him. So they had to let him go again, and he gave a ball afterwards. So he couldn’t have done anything very wicked. He sings, and plays on the violin, and guitar too. What a draw he would be in opera!’
‘Mrs. Lilburne says she will _never_ forget his kindness to her husband. He got him away from that dreadful island, where he would have died. So would she. She had a great mind to commit suicide, and was only kept alive by the incessant work in the hospital at Pilot Mount, where she nursed father, and Lord Newstead, and lots of poor miners.’
‘Really,’ said Vanda, ‘when we want to see our Australian friends, the proper thing is to come to England. We have certainly met more in a month here than we ever did in a year in the colonies.’
‘And we never should have fallen across Captain Hay——I beg his pardon, Captain Bucklaw in Australia,’ assented Hermione. ‘I wonder what will be his end. Something romantic and far from peaceful, I feel certain. Oh, here he comes to say good-bye! Why can’t he stay another day, I wonder?’
‘Reasons of State! The Captain never stays long in one place, I’ve remarked,’ said Mr. Lilburne, who, with his wife, now joined them. ‘He had a wire from his agent that the cargo was complete, and the _Haitchi Maru_ only waiting for her commander.’
Mr. and Mrs. Banneret now came forward, while the Lilburnes shook hands warmly with the man who had been their friend in need, whatever might have been his career under other circumstances.
‘_We_ shall never forget you,’ said Mrs. Lilburne; ‘you saved two lives when you rescued Alister from that inferno.’
‘The Captain knows he may count on us whenever he likes to call,’ said her husband. ‘We hope to be able to repay him in kind.’
‘It was time for us to go, my lads; It was time for us to go,’
said he, chaunting the refrain of an old sailor-song, in deep melodious tones. ‘I have never yet been caught napping, but, believe me, this meeting of true friends will be among the most precious memories of a reckless life, and if any of the present company should find themselves in danger on sea, or land, within a hundred miles of this skipper, he’ll effect a diversion if it’s in the power of mortal man. But, after all, it’s a ten-to-one chance we never meet again. Think of me as one who might have been a better man with better luck. Adios, señora. Adios, Don Carlos Alvarez. Adios, señoritas.’ Here he shook hands once more with the men, and bowing low to the girls and Mrs. Banneret, strode away to a swift hansom which awaited him, and disappeared from their eyes.