before you say a single word."

Tom poured out a glass, smiling as he did so.

"Ah!" cried Jack, "I know you have good news."

"Ay, Jack, lots of it. I've been everywhere and I've done everything,
and I've had good luck in the whole."

"Wait a moment, Tom.--Steward!"

"Ay, ay, sir."

"I'm engaged for the next half-hour unless any one desires to see me on
duty.--Now, Tom, I shall light my pipe. Follow my example. It wants an
hour to dinner, and you are my guest to-night. No one else save our two
selves and M'Hearty, I believe."

"Well, Jack," said Tom Fairlie, after he had smoked in silence for a few
moments, "first I went to the port-admiral's office and saw Secretary
Byng. He knows everything. Told me your father was gazetted, and would
sail with his command in a few months' time."

"Glorious news, Tom. How pleased father will be!"

"Byng told me further that we must get men to fill up our complement,
and fifty over, by hook or by crook."

"Fifty over! that means fighting, Tom. Go on."

"The hook and crook means pressment, Jack."

"Well, well, I don't like it; but it is all for the good of the service.
Heave round, Tom."

"Then I went to the post-office. Sly dog, am I? Well, perhaps. A letter
from Flora, and one for you."

Jack tore his open.

"Why, she has gone to live with dear old Father Spence at Torquay, Tom."

"Yes, Jack, till the war is over. Then, if God but spares us all, I
shall be your brother."

"Dear girl," said Jack. "Ah, Tom, what a noble courage she possesses!
You and I can meet the foe face to face and fight well; but that is
under excitement. But dear Flora needed more courage than ours to leave
Grantley Hall so bravely as she did. Never a tear, Tom, never a tear;
and I even saw my father's eyes wet. Ah well. It is the fortune of war.
Heigh-ho!"

"Cheer up, Jack. Somehow, my friend, I think that Grantley Hall will
come back to the Mackenzies yet."

"Ah, never, Tom, never! The dear old place where Flora and I spent our
childhood, only to think it should come at last into the clutches of the
plausible skinflint Keane; the father, though, of--but go on, Tom, go
on."

"I next saw two gentlemen of the 'sailors' friend' persuasion."

"Crimps? Scoundrels!"

"Well, anyhow, they are good for forty between them."

"Bravo! Things are looking up. What a capital fellow you are, Tom! But,
stay; let me reckon. We still want twenty more."

"And these, Jack, shall be no mere top hamper