IN EASTERN SEAS, BY HARRY
COLLINGWOOD.

CHAPTER ONE.

THE OUTCAST.

A furious gust of wind tore down the chimney, blowing the smoke out into
the small but cosily-furnished sitting-room of the little cottage at
Kingston-on-Thames, and sending a shower of sparks hissing and
spluttering on to the hearth-rug, where they were promptly trodden out
by a tall, fair-haired young giant, who lazily removed his feet from a
chair on which they reposed, for the purpose.

This operation concluded, he replaced his feet on the chair with
deliberation, re-arranged a cushion behind his head, leaned back
luxuriously, and started hunting in his pocket for matches wherewith to
light his pipe, which had gone out.

"Beastly night for a dog to be out, much more a human being," he
soliloquised. "Poor old Murray's sure to be drenched when he gets back,
as well as frozen to the bone. Let's see--is everything ready for him?
Yes, there are his slippers warming before the fire--hope none of those
sparks burnt a hole in 'em--likewise dry coat, shirt, and trousers; that
ought to do him all right. I hope to goodness the poor old chap's got
some encouragement to-day, if nothing else, for he's fearfully down on
his luck, and no mistake. And, between me and those fire-irons there,
I'm getting almost afraid to let him out of my sight, for fear he'll go
and do something foolish--though, to be sure, he's hardly that kind of
fellow, when one comes to think of it. However, he should be in very
soon now, and then I, shall learn the news."

Having delivered himself of this monologue, Dick Penryn lit his pipe,
took up the book he had been reading, and was soon deep in the pages of
Theophile Gautier's _Voyage en l'Orient_.

Dick Penryn and Murray Frobisher, the friend to whom he had been
alluding, were chums of many years' standing. They had been born within
a few months of one another--Frobisher being slightly the elder--in the
same Devon village; had attended the same school in Plymouth--Mannamead
House, to be exact; had gone to the same college together, and had
passed into the British Navy within a year of one another--Frobisher
being again first in the race.

Then, for some years, fortune smiled upon both. Each won golden
opinions from his superiors; and by the time that the lads were
twenty-three years of age they had attained the rank of lieutenant, and
showed signs of rising rapidly in the service.

Everything was going splendidly, a