ering a few drops of brandy at
intervals, varied by an occasional spoonful every now and then of the
savoury soup from the saucepan on the fire, which was really a regular
French stew, Dick became ultimately, as Bob already was through the same
regimen, much better--the poor boy now recovering his consciousness and
being able to speak.

The two invalids were then put to bed comfortably in a couple of bunks
on either side of the fo'c's'le; while the lugger, whose name, by the
way, was the _Jeanne d'Arc_, reached over towards the English coast, to
see what fishing she could get in those prohibited waters.

Late in the afternoon, Bob and Dick both woke up refreshed; when, each
had another jorum of the savoury soup, which Bob said subsequently was
the nicest thing, he believed, he had ever tasted in his life! The
boys, then, feeling quite well, so to speak, went on to tell the kind
sailors all about their adventures, Bob, of course, being the principal
spokesman.

"Ah!" observed Jacques. "You are living at Portsmouth, then?"

"No, I've only been stopping there for the season," replied Bob. "But,
I like it very much!"

"It's my native place, sir. I was born there!" cried Jacques. "My
father was in the English navy; and my old mother, who is yet alive, has
a house of her own in the town! It's only through my having married a
French wife that has took me over here along with the Parlyvoos!"

"How strange!" exclaimed Bob. "Why, we went to see only the other day a
Mrs Craddock, who has a daughter who's very ill, that my aunt Polly
goes to see; and she told us she had a son married to a French girl and
he was living at Saint Malo!"

"Why, that's me!" cried Jacques; although "Jacques" no longer to us.
"I'm Jim Craddock, and the old lady that you saw is my mother! My word!
this is a rum start!"

After the curious coincidence of Bob and Dick being rescued by the son
of "the old egg-woman," as they always called her, between whom and
themselves Rover had in the original instance scraped an acquaintance,
nothing would content Jim Craddock but that he must bear up at once for
Portsmouth, and restore Bob and Dick to those who bewailed them as lost,
as well as return the battered little yacht, which the lugger had in tow
astern, to her proper owner.

The meeting between Bob and his parents is too sacred a matter to touch
upon here; but, it is easy enough to imagine the delight of those
welcoming one coming back to them