ive the
money to a hospital!"

"I have not finished yet, Dick. We won't take all the money, but we
have agreed that we will take a quarter of it. Of course, we could
manage on my savings, as your mother did when I was away. We shall
lose the little allowance the Company made her, but I shall buy a
share in a ship with my money, which will bring in a good deal better
rate of interest than she got for it in the funds, so we could still
manage very well. Still, as we feel that it would please you, we agree
to take a quarter of the money the jewels fetch; and that, with what I
have, will give us an income well beyond our wants. So that is
settled.

"Now, about yourself. I really don't think that you can do better than
what you proposed, when we were talking of it yesterday. You would be
like a fish out of water, in England, if you had nothing to occupy
your time; and therefore can't do better than enter the Service here,
and remain, at any rate, for a few years.

"As your commission was dated from the time you joined Lord
Cornwallis, two and a half years ago, you won't be at the bottom of
the tree, and while you are serving you will want no money here, and
the interest of your capital will be accumulating. If I invest it in
shipping for you, you will get eight or ten percent for it; and as I
shall pick good ships, commanded by men I know, and will divide the
money up in small shares, among half a dozen of them, there will be
practically no risk--and of course the vessels will be insured. So
that, at the end of ten years, by reinvesting the profits, your money
will be more than doubled, and you will have a nice fortune when you
choose to come home, even if the jewels do not fetch anything like
what you expect."

A week later the party journeyed down to Madras, where they stayed for
a fortnight. Dick, on his arrival, called upon the governor, who
congratulated him most heartily when he heard that he had succeeded in
finding and releasing his father, and at once appointed him to one of
the native cavalry regiments; and his parents had the satisfaction of
seeing him in uniform before they started. Annie showed but little
interest in the thought of going to England, and being restored to her
parents, being at the time too much distressed at parting from Dick to
give any thought to other matters. But at last the goodbyes were all
said, and, as the anchor was weighed, Dick returned on shore in a surf
boat, and next day joine