s protected by a white apron extending
from his throat to the tops of his boots, busily engaged in dusting his
bottles and the shelves whereon they stood.

As Dick entered, the Doctor, mounted upon a step ladder, looked down at
him with a smile and nod of welcome, and said:

"Well, my boy, how did you sleep, and how do you feel after your ordeal
of last night?"

Dick laughed joyously. "My `ordeal'!" he exclaimed. "I hope I may
never have to undergo a more trying ordeal than that. I slept like a
top, thank you, and feel as fit as a fiddle this morning, indeed I don't
know that I ever felt so fit in all my life before. But that is not
all: I have not the remotest idea what mysterious thing you did to me
last night, but this I know, that you have imparted to me a something
that I have never hitherto possessed. I feel this morning a buoyancy of
spirit that it seems to me no amount of disappointment could damp or
lessen for a moment, and I have a belief in myself so complete, so
boundless, that I feel I cannot help but be successful in this new
venture of mine upon which I am about to embark."

"Yes," said Humphreys, nodding his head in a manner which very clearly
expressed his satisfaction, "that is the result of your `ordeal', and it
will be quite permanent. Mind you, I don't say that you will always
feel quite so buoyant and confident as you do at this moment, for it is
beyond the power of any man to make another absolutely immune to
circumstances; but in spite of circumstances, however adverse, you will
always retain some at least of your present buoyancy and confidence. I
do not think you will ever sink into that condition of utter and abject
despair which overwhelms some people and drives them to suicide. To
change the subject. Are you still minded to go to the docks this
morning in quest of a shipmaster benevolently enough inclined to allow
you to work your passage out to South Africa?"

"Rather!" answered Dick. "That is to say, if you think you can spare me
for a few hours."

"Of course I can spare you," answered Humphreys. "And I would advise
you to go immediately after breakfast, for, as you know, `it is the
early bird that catches the worm.' But how do you propose to set about
your quest? Not quite haphazard, I suppose?"

"No," answered Dick. "I thought of getting the _Shipping Gazette_, and
perhaps the _Telegraphy_ and consulting their advertisement pages, with
the view of learning what ship