e to him where he went. He regarded the summer trip in the light
of a penance to be paid for the sin of being a member of society and the
head of a household, and placed every minute so wasted to the debit of
the profit and loss account in the mental ledger of his life's affairs,
for it must not be supposed that Mr Webster's character was changed by
the events which followed the rescue of his child from the sea. True,
he had been surprised out of his habitual hardness for a short time, but
he soon relapsed, if not quite back to the old position, at least so
near to it that the difference was not appreciable.

As time ran on, men begun to look for the return of the _Warrior_, but
that vessel did not make her appearance. Then they began to shake their
heads and to grow prophetic, while those who were most deeply interested
in the human beings who manned her became uneasy.

"Don't fret over it," said Harry one day to his mother, in a kind,
earnest tone; "you may depend upon it father will turn up yet and
surprise us. He never lost a ship in his life, and he has sailed in
worse ones than the _Warrior_ by a long way."

"It may be so," replied Mrs Boyns, sadly; "but it is a long, long time
since he went away. God's will be done. Whether He gives or takes
away, I shall try to bless His name."

At last Harry gave over attempting to comfort his mother, for he began
to fear that his father's ship was destined to be placed on the dark,
dreary list of those of which it is sometimes said, with terrible
brevity, in the newspapers, "She sailed from port on such and such a
day, and has not since been heard of."

In course of time Harry made one or two trips to the East Indies as
first mate of one of Mr Webster's vessels, and ultimately obtained the
command of one.

At last a day came when there appeared in a Welsh newspaper a paragraph,
which ran thus:--"A Message from the Sea--A bottle, corked and sealed,
was found by a woman on the beach, above Conway, North Wales. Inside
was a letter containing the following:--

"`Latitude 44, longitude 15, off Tierra del Fuego. If this should
ever reach the shores of England, it will announce to friends at home
the sad fate of the ship _Warrior_, which sailed from Liverpool on
13th February 18 hundred and something, bound for China. We have been
boarded by pirates: we have been all locked into the cabin, with the
assurance that we shall be made to walk the plank in half