py. Then Dr. Finlay was appointed to some
exceptionally fine post in India, private physician to some great
Rajah, and the Finlay family hastily prepared for their journey to
Delhi. I longed to go with them but I had not the money requisite.
With Dr. Finlay I had had a home but only money enough to clothe me
decently. I had not a pound left and mother could not help me, and
Uncle Ian was in the Madeira Isles with his sick wife. So the Finlays
went without me; and I can feel yet the sense of loneliness and
poverty that assailed me, when I shut their door behind me and walked
into the cold street and knew not what to do or where to go."

"How old were you then, Ian?" asked Ragnor.

"I was twenty years old within a few days, and I had one pound,
sixteen shillings in my pocket. Five pounds from an Episcopal church
would be due in two weeks for my solo and part singing in their
services; but they were never very prompt in their payment and that
was nothing to rely on in my present need. I took to answering
advertisements, and did some of the weariest tramping looking for work
that poor humanity can do. When I met Kenneth McLeod, I had broken my
last shilling. I was like a hungry, lost child, and the thought of my
mother came to me and I felt as if my heart would break.

"The next moment I saw Kenneth McLeod coming up Prince's Street. It
was nearly four years since we had seen each other, but he knew me at
once and called me in his old kind way. Then he looked keenly at me,
and asked: 'What is the matter, Ian? The old trouble?'

"I was so heartless and hungry I could hardly keep back tears as I
answered: 'It is that and everything else! Ken, help me, if you can.'
'Come with me!' he answered, and I went with him into the Queen's
Hotel and he ordered dinner, and while we were eating I told him my
situation. Then he said, 'I can help you, Ian, if you will help me.
You know that all my happiness is on the sea and father kept me on one
or another of his trading boats as much as possible from my boyhood,
so that I am now a clever enough navigator. Two years ago my father
died and I am in a lot of trouble about managing the property he left
me. Now, if you will take the oversight of my Edinburgh property, I
can take my favourite boat and look after the coast trade of the
Northern Islands.'

"What could I say? I was dumb with surprise and gratitude. I never
thought there was anything wrong in our contract. I believed the work
h