th. "I'll go down and see her
to-morrow night. You go first and break the news to her, and I'll follow
on. Do it gently, Jack. It's quite safe; there's nobody she can talk
to now; she's left the Wheelers, and I'm simply longing to see her. You
don't know what it is to be in love, Jack."

"What am I to tell her?" enquired the other, hastily.

"Tell her I was saved," was the reply. "I'll do the rest. By Jove, I've
got it."

He banged the table so hard that his plate jumped and the glasses in the
bar rattled in protest.

"Anything wrong with the grub?" enquired the landlord, severely.

Flower, who was all excitement, shook his head.

"Because if there is," continued the landlord, "I'd sooner you spoke of
it than smash the table; never mind about hurting my feelings."

He wiped down the counter to show that Flower's heated glances had
no effect upon _him_, withdrawing reluctantly to serve an impatient
customer.

"I'll go down to-morrow morning to the _Golden Cloud_ and try and
ship before the mast," said Flower, excitably; "get married out in New
Zealand, and then come home when things are settled. What do you think
of that, my boy? How does that strike you?"

"How will it strike Cap'n Barber?" asked Fraser, as soon as he had
recovered sufficiently to speak.

Flower's eyes twinkled. "It's quite easy to get wrecked and picked up
once or twice," he said, cheerfully. "I'll have my story pat by the time
I get home, even to the names of the craft I was cast away in. And I can
say I heard of Elizabeth's marriage from somebody I met in New Zealand.
I'll manage all right."

The master of the _Swallow_ gazed at him in help-less fascination.

"They want hands on the _Golden Cloud_," he said, slowly; "but what
about your discharges?"

"I can get those," said Flower, complacently; "a man with money and
brains can do anything. Lend me a pound or two before I forget it, will
you? And if you'll give me Poppy's address, I'll be outside the house at
seven to-morrow. Lord, fancy being on the same ship with her for three
months."

He threw down a borrowed sovereign on the counter, and, ordering some
more drinks, placed them on the table. Fraser had raised his to his lips
when he set it down again, and with a warning finger called the other's
attention to the remarkable behaviour of the door communicating with the
next bar, which, in open defiance of the fact that it possessed a patent
catch of the latest pattern, stood open