deck.

The lieutenant, a young man of about four or five and twenty,
looked surprised when he found that the official, whom he was to
carry down to Java, was apparently younger than himself.

"I suppose, Captain Fairclough," Harry said with a smile, when they
entered the cabin, "that you expected to see a middle-aged man."

"Hardly that, Captain Lindsay. I heard that you were a young
officer, who had rendered distinguished services on the Bombay
side, and had just returned from an important mission in the
Deccan; but I own that I had not at all expected to see an officer
younger than myself."

"I can quite understand that. I have been exceptionally fortunate,
owing to the fact that I speak Mahratti as well as English. Well, I
hope that after your reception we have done with ceremony; and that
you will forget that I am, at present, a civil official with the
temporary rank of commissioner, and regard and treat me as you
might any young officer who had been given a passage in your brig.
I have led a pretty rough life, and hate anything like ceremony. We
may be some weeks on board together, and should have a pleasant
time of it, especially as the whole country is new to me."

"And to me also," the lieutenant said. "I generally cruise from the
mouth of the Hooghly to Chittagong; and a dreary coast it is, with
its low muddy shores and scores of creeks and streams. In the
sunderbunds there is little to look after, the people are quiet and
very scattered; but farther east they are piratically inclined, and
prey upon the native traders, and we occasionally catch them at it,
and give them a lesson.

"Well, I shall be very glad to adopt your suggestion, and to drop
all ceremony. I have not often had to carry civil officials in this
craft, she is too small for any such dignified people; but when I
was in the Tigris, we often carried civil and military officials
from Madras, and some of them were unmitigated nuisances--not the
military men, but the civilians. The absurd airs they gave
themselves, as if heaven and earth belonged to them, were
sickening; and they seemed to regard us as dust under their feet.
Whenever we heard that we were to take a member of the Council from
Calcutta to Madras, or the other way, it was regarded as an
infliction of a serious kind."

"Well, I propose to begin with that, when we are down here
together, we drop titles; you call me Lindsay, and I will call you
Fairclough."

"With all my heart,"