make no doubt that my face
flushed and paled. For the woman was that girl Barbara who had made the
Skull and Spectacles so dear and so dreadful to me, and the man was that
red-bearded fellow who had clipped her closely in his arms on the day
when I went there for the last time. The man who was rowing the boat was
none other than the landlord of the Skull and Spectacles, Barbara's
uncle.

I drew back before they had noticed me, and I drew my mother away with
me. The pair came on board, but I kept my back turned, and they went aft
without noting me. It would seem as if Cornelys Jensen had been but
waiting for them to set sail, for now he gave the order that all should
leave the ship who were not sailing with her. Then there was such
sobbings and embracings and hand-claspings ere the relatives and friends
who were staying on shore got down the side into the craft that was
waiting for them. My mother and I parted somehow, and I saw her safely
into the dinghy which I had chartered for her benefit, handled by a
waterside fellow whom I knew well for a steady oar.

Everything then seemed to happen with the quickness of a dream. One
moment I seemed to see her sitting in the stern of the boat, waving her
handkerchief to me; then next there came a rush of tears, that blotted
out everything, my mother and the town and all; the next, as it seemed
to me, though of course the interval was longer, we were cutting the
water with a fair wind, and the downs and the cliffs seemed to be racing
away from us. The Royal Christopher had set sail for its haven at the
other end of the world.

CHAPTER XIV

THE SEA LIFE

The fair weather with which we were favoured during the early part of
our voyage made the time very delightful and very instructive to me.
Indeed, I learnt more during those happy weeks of matters that are
proper for a man to know than I had even guessed at in the whole course
of my life. For the Captain, who was an accomplished swordsman, and
Lancelot, who was a promising pupil, were at great pains to teach me the
use both of the small sword and the broadsword, at which they exercised
me daily upon the deck. Captain Amber had a great regard for Sir William
Hope of Balcomie's book, wherein I made my daily study, and he or
Lancelot would make me practise all that I read.

I was ever apt at picking up all things wherein strength and skill
counted for more than book-learning, and I am glad to think that they
found me a