ralia's as good a place as any other for the man who goes out
there to work," I said. "But somehow you don't look to me like a chap
that is used to what is called roughing it. Pardon my bluntness."

"Well, you see, I've never had much chance. My father is considered by
many a very peculiar man. He has strange ideas about me, and so you see
I've never been allowed to mix with other people. But I'm stronger than
you'd think, and I shall be twenty in October next."

"If you don't mind telling me, what is your name?"

"I suppose there can be no harm in letting you know it. I was told if
ever I met any one and they asked me, not to tell them. But since you
saved my life it would be ungrateful not to let you know. I am the
Marquis of Beckenham."

"Is that so? Then your father is the Duke of Glenbarth?"

"Yes. Do you know him?"

"Never set eyes on him in my life, but I heard him spoken of the other
day."

I did not add that it was Mr. Matchem who, during my conversation with
him, had referred to his Grace, nor did I think it well to say that he
had designated him the "Mad Duke." And so the boy I had saved from
drowning was the young Marquis of Beckenham. Well, I was moving in good
society with a vengeance. This boy was the first nobleman I had ever
clapped eyes on, though I knew the Count de Panuroff well enough in
Thursday Island. But then foreign Counts, and shady ones at that, ought
not to reckon, perhaps.

"But you don't mean to tell me," I said at length, "that you've got no
friends? Don't you ever see any one at all?"

"No, I am not allowed to. My father thinks it better not. And as he does
not wish it, of course I have nothing left but to obey. I must own,
however, I should like to see the world--to go along voyage to
Australia, for instance."

"But how do you put in your time? You must have a very dull life of it."

"Oh, no! You see, I have never known anything else, and then I have
always the future to look forward to. As it is now, I bathe every
morning, I have my yacht, I ride about the park, I have my studies, and
I have a tutor who tells me wonderful stories of the world."

"Oh, your tutor has been about, has he?"

"Dear me, yes! He was a missionary in the South Sea Islands, and has
seen some very stirring adventures."

"A missionary in the South Seas, eh? Perhaps I know him."

"Were you ever in those seas?"

"Why, I've spent almost all my life there."

"Were you a missionary?"

"You bet not