"No, I will risk that," replied Mr Rockfeller. "And now there is
nothing left for me to say except to request that you join the vessel
at once; and you have a free hand to do what you consider best with
her."

Captain Macvie hurried home and conveyed to his young wife the good
fortune that had come to them. He also informed his aged parents, whom
he had not seen since his first home-leaving, of all that had taken
place, and expressed his regret that he could not visit them before
sailing on a voyage to the Piraeus, but hoped to do so on his return.
This letter became a family heirloom. The joy of the old people was
reflected on the whole family, and also on their friends, and the
congratulations were numerous and sincere. In less than a week from the
time of being engaged, the _Boadicea_ was towed over the bar, and
she sailed away followed by a north-east wind. The hurrahs of the
visitors after embarking on the tug reverberated the joyous tidings of
goodwill, and soon the ship and her jolly crew passed from view into
the southern haze.

The Eastern question was causing great anxiety in diplomatic circles;
trouble was fast brewing into open hostility, and before the
_Boadicea_ arrived at the port of discharge, the great Russian war
of 1854 had broken out with all its hellish mismanagement and criminal
indifference to the needs of the finest soldiers in the whole world.
They were badly generalled, shockingly clothed and meagrely fed on
provisions that the ordinary civilian would scarcely give to swine.
Complaints of the grossest mismanagement were sent home and were
unheeded; while the predatory, heartless scoundrels who had contracts
were allowed to amass wealth by shamelessly robbing poor Tommy of his
food and clothes. Mon Dieu! What forbearance the thinking, sympathetic
portion of the British people must have had to endure it, knowing that
their fellow-subjects and kinsfolk were being done to death by some
contractors and by the callousness and incompetency of dunderheaded
politicians and drawing-room warriors! It is a sickening subject that
cannot be approached without feelings of anger.

The _Boadicea_ made a quick passage, and was boarded on her arrival by
swarms of Levantine gentlemen, each clamouring for first place to get
her in hand to charter. The declaration of war had created a wild
demand for transport tonnage. Sensational freights were offered for the
veriest rattletraps, and as the young commander of th