me, hailing one ship after another, but mine could not be found.
I began to suspect at last that old Bob did not wish to find her, but
had his eye on another day's work, and pay in proportion, as he might
certainly consider that he had me in his power, and could demand what he
chose. I was on the point of giving up the search, when, as we were
near one of the large Indiamen I have mentioned, a vessel running past
compelled us to go close alongside. An officer was standing on the
accommodation-ladder, assisting up some passengers. He hailed one of
the people in the boat, about some luggage. I knew the voice, and,
looking more narrowly, I recognised, I thought, my old schoolfellow,
Jack Newall. I called him by name. "Who's that?" he exclaimed. "What,
Braithwaite, my fine fellow, what brings you out here?"

When I told him, "It is ten chances to one that you pick her out
to-night," he answered. "But come aboard; I can find you a berth, and
to-morrow morning you can continue your search. Depend on it your ship
forms one of our convoy, so that she will not sail without you."

I was too glad to accept Jack Newall's offer. Old Bob looked rather
disappointed at finding me snatched from his grasp, and volunteered to
come back early in the morning, and take me on board the _Barbara_,
promising in the meantime to find her out.

The sudden change from the little boat tumbling about in the dark to the
Indiaman's well-lighted cuddy, glittering with plate and glass, into
which my friend introduced me--filled, moreover, as it was, with
well-dressed ladies and gentlemen--was very startling. She was the
well-known _Cuffnells_, a ship of twelve hundred tons, one of the finest
of her class, and, curiously enough, was the very one which, two voyages
before, had carried my brother Frederick out to India.

I had never before been on board an Indiaman. Everything about her
seemed grand and ponderous, and gave me the idea of strength and
stability. If she was to meet with any disaster, it would not be for
want of being well found. The captain remembered my brother, and was
very civil to me; and several other people knew my family, so that I
spent a most pleasant evening on board, in the society of the nabobs and
military officers, and the ladies who had husbands and those who had
not, but fully expected to get them at the end of the voyage, and the
young cadets and writers, and others who usually formed the complement
of an Ind