ne on to Sierra Leone with us, also engaging berths in the
same vessel. The survivors from the _Daphne_ being also ordered home to
stand their trial for the loss of that vessel, I thought I could not do
better than secure one of the remaining berths in the _Lilian's_ cabin--
the men being accommodated in the steerage. Thus we had the mutual
pleasure of each other's society all the way home.

The passage was a long but uneventful one, and by the time that we
arrived in the Chops of the Channel Smellie's wound had taken so
favourable a turn that he was almost as well as ever, save and except
for a little lingering weakness and shakiness in his lower spars, which,
somehow, obstinately continued to need the assistance and support of
Dona Antonia's fair arm whenever the two promenaded the deck together.
My gallant superior was extremely anxious to be married immediately on
the ship's arrival, and after the usual protestations and pleadings for
delay with which engaged maidens delight to torment their lovers, Dona
Antonia so far yielded as to consent to the wedding taking place on the
earliest possible day after my trial, so that I might be present at the
ceremony.

And this arrangement was duly carried out; the trial by court-martial
being, of course, a mere form, from which I and my fellow-survivors
emerged with a full acquittal, accompanied, in my case, by a few very
gracious and complimentary remarks from the president on the manner in
which I had conducted myself during my short period of service.

As for Smellie, he found himself fully confirmed in his rank of
commander, with the gracious intimation that, in appreciation of his
valued services, an appointment would be at his disposal whenever he
felt himself sufficiently recovered to ask for it, which he did after a
six months' sojourn at home with his young wife. I sailed with him in
the capacity of midshipman, and in the West Indies and elsewhere we
passed through several stirring adventures together, the record of which
may possibly be given in the future.

THE END.

End of the Project Gutenberg EBook of The Congo Rovers, by Harry Collingwood

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