hat will set you right."

Frank looked at him for a moment piteously, and then burst into a
strange laugh.

"Eh, hallo!" cried the doctor; "don't laugh in that maniacal way, boy.
Have I got hold of the pig by the wrong tail? Bah! I mean the wrong
tail by the pig. Nonsense! nonsense! I mean the wrong pig by--Oh, I
see now. Why, Frank, my boy, of course. Ah, poor lad! poor lad!
Murray has been telling me. Well, it's a bad job, and I shouldn't have
thought it of Rob Gowan. But there, I don't know: _humanum est errare_.
Not so much erroring in it either. Circumstances alter cases, and I
dare say that if I were kicked out of the army, and I had a chance to be
made chief surgeon to the forces of you know whom, I should accept the
post."

The boy's head sank down upon his hands, and he did not seem to hear the
doctor's words.

"Poor lad!" he continued; "it's a very sad affair, and I'm very sorry
for you. I always liked your father, and I never disliked you, which is
saying a deal, for I hate boys as a rule. Confounded young monkeys, and
no good whatever, except to get into mischief. There, I see now--ought
to have seen it with half an eye. There, there, there, my lad; don't
take on about it. Cheer up! You're amongst friends who like you, and
the sun will come out again, even if it does get behind the black clouds
sometimes."

He patted the boy's shoulder, and stroked his back, meaning, old
bachelor as he was, to be very tender and fatherly; but it was clumsily
done, for the doctor had never served his time to playing at being
father, and begun by practising on babies. Hence he only irritated the
boy.

"He talks to me and pats me as if I were a dog," said Frank to himself;
and he would have manifested his annoyance in some way to one who was
doing his best, when fortunately there was a sharp rap at the door, and
a familiar voice cried:

"May I come in, doctor?"

"No, sir, no. I'm particularly engaged. Oh, it's you, Murray!--Mind
his coming in, Gowan?"

"Oh no; I want to see him!" cried the boy, springing up.

"Come in!" shouted the doctor.

"You here, Frank?" said the captain, holding out his hands, in which the
boy sadly placed his own, but withdrew them quickly.

"Yes, of course he is," said the doctor testily. "Came to see his
friends. In trouble, and wants comforting."

"Yes," said Captain Murray quietly, as he laid his hand upon the boy's
shoulder. "Then you know the truth now, Frank?