"Now, Father, do you mind my bringing in Annie Mansfield? I know she
will be wanting to keep close to me all day, and I should never be
able to get rid of her, without telling her about you."

"Bring her in by all means, Dick. She must be a plucky young girl, by
what you said about her."

"Where have you been, Dick?" Annie inquired, when Dick went out a few
minutes later. "I have been looking for you everywhere. Nobody had
seen you, unless it was the Rajah. I asked him, and he said that
little girls must not ask questions, and then laughed.

"You have not brought home another white girl?" she exclaimed
suddenly.

"Would it not be very nice for you to have a companion, Annie?"

"No," she said sharply; "I should not like it at all."

"Well, I will take you in to see her, and I think you will like her.

"No; I am only joking," he broke off, as he saw tears start into her
eyes. "It is not another girl. But you shall see for yourself."

He took her hand, and led her to his father's room.

"There, Annie, this is the gentleman who has come back with me this
time."

Annie looked at Captain Holland in surprise, and then turned her eyes
to Dick for an explanation.

"He is a respectable-looking old native, isn't he, Annie?"

"Yes, he looks respectable," Annie said gravely; "but he doesn't look
very old. Why has he come down with you, Dick? He can't have been a
slave."

"But I have, lass," the captain said, in English, to Annie's intense
astonishment. "I have been in their hands a year or so longer than you
were."

Annie turned impulsively to Dick, and grasped his arm.

"Oh, Dick," she said, in an excited whisper. "Is it--is it your
father, after all?"

"Ay, lass," the captain answered for him. "I am the boy's father, and
a happy father, too, as you may guess, at finding I have such a son.
And I hear he has been a good friend to you, too."

"Oh, he has, he has indeed!" Annie cried, running forward and seizing
his hands in both of hers. "I don't think there ever was anyone so
kind and good."

"What bosh, Annie!" Dick exclaimed, almost crossly.

"Never mind what he says, my dear. You and I know all about it. Now we
can do very well without him, for a time. He can go and tell his uncle
and cousins all about his adventures, which, I have no doubt, they are
dying to hear; and you and I can sit here, and exchange confidences
until my barber comes. I don't look much like an Englishman now, but I
hope that they wi