his safe arrival in
Halifax, Nova Scotia; and trusted that the step he had taken, if a
thought presumptuous at his years, yet betokened a spirit of
self-reliance, and might prove not otherwise than conducive to his
welfare in the outcome.

Altogether, we were, practically, as much dependent on ourselves as when
we sat under the pine-trees in Nova Scotia.

"We'll look up my cousin, to begin with," said Dennis.

"Are ye pairfectly convinced that he's here?" asked Alister, warned by
his own experience.

"Certainly," said Dennis.

"Have ye corresponded with him of late?" pursued Alister.

"Not I, indeed. The O'Moores are by no means good letter-writers at the
best of times, but he'd have let us know if he was dead, anyhow, and if
he's alive, we'll be as welcome as the flowers."

Before Alister could reply, he was interrupted by a message from our
late captain. The _Water-Lily_ was still in harbour, and the captain
wanted the ex-mate to help him on some matters connected with the ship
or her cargo. Alister would not refuse, and he was to be paid for the
job, so we hastily arranged that he should go, and that Dennis and I
should devote the evening to looking up the Irish cousin, and we
appointed to meet on the "stelling" or wharf, alongside of which the
_Water-Lily_ lay, at eleven o'clock on the following morning.

"I was a fool not to speak to that engineer fellow the other night,"
said Dennis, as we strolled on the shady side of a wide street, down the
middle of which ran a wide water-dyke fringed with oleanders. "He would
be certain to know where my cousin's place is."

"Do you know him?" I asked, with some eagerness, for the young officer
was no small hero in my eyes.

"Oh, yes, quite well. He's a lieutenant in the Engineers. He has often
stayed at my father's for shooting. But he has been abroad the last two
or three years, and I suppose I've grown. He didn't know--"

"There he is!" said I.

He was coming out of a garden-gate on the other side of the street. But
he crossed the road, saying, "Hi, my lads!" and putting his hand into
his pocket as he came.

"Here's diversion, Jack!" chuckled Dennis; "he's going to tip us for our
assistance in the gunpowder plot. Look at him now! Faith, he's as short
of change as myself. How that half-crown's eluding him in the corner of
his pocket! It'll be no less, I assure ye. He's a liberal soul. Now for
it!"

And as the young lieutenant drew near, Dennis performed an