rt was not turned to the right way. I had discovered a new and
inexhaustible source of interest, but that was all.

Newman did not return on board till the next day. He was much elated in
spirits when he appeared, though he tried to repress the feeling.

"Well, Jack, the tide has begun to flow at last," said he: "you shall
hear all about it. Mynheer Von Kniper was excessively pleased with the
drawings I took him, and the more so when I begged he would accept them
from me."

"`I have often thought about you,' said he; `and, I must confess, little
expected to see you return here. I rejoice to see you back, for you
must know that I have an offer to make you, which I hope you will think
fit to accept. We have been for some time in want of a commander for
one of the Colonial Government schooners, and I have ascertained from
your captain that you are in every respect fitted for the post, and that
he will give you your discharge from his ship. I have therefore great
satisfaction in offering it to you.'

"I scarcely knew how to express myself in thanking him; so I took his
hand, and shaking it heartily, told him that I was very much obliged to
him, and that I placed myself entirely under his directions. So it was
settled, and that same evening he presented me with my commission
signed, and here I am, a lieutenant commander in the Dutch Colonial
Navy! It is, in truth, a hop, step, and a jump into a post of honour I
little expected, nor can I yet realise the greatness of the change."

I congratulated Newman most sincerely on the prospects thus opened up to
him, though I regretted being so completely separated from him, as I
must expect to be, for the future. He suggested the possibility of my
following him, but that I at once saw was not likely to occur. In the
first place, Captain Carr was not likely to allow a steady hand to leave
him so early in the voyage; and probably the Dutch authorities would not
be very ready to give a berth to another Englishman on board the same
vessel; added to which, I had some misgivings as to serving under their
flag.

Newman, of course, saw the first of these objections; and probably, if
the truth were known, though he might not have been ready to confess it
to himself after the intimate terms on which we had been together, he
would have found it inconvenient while he was captain to have had me
before the mast. It must be remembered that, though my mind was
beginning to be cultiva