"Jack Trawl!" exclaimed the man-of-war"s man; "then you belong to the _Lapwing_. We all thought you were lost with the rest of the boat"s crew."
"No, I wasn"t; Miles Soper and I escaped. Now I look at you, ain"t you Bill Bolton?"
"The same," was the answer. "Tell us how it all happened."
Jack in a few words told his old shipmate what is already known to the reader. While he was speaking, who should come up but Miles Soper himself, come down to Portsmouth to look out for a berth, accompanied by Sam Coal. The long and the short of it was that they all three agreed to enter aboard the _Thisbe_, and did their best to persuade Jim to follow their example.
I had no notion of doing so myself, for I knew that it would break Mary"s heart to part with me again so soon, and I feared, indeed, that she would not like Jack"s going. Still, taking all things into consideration, he could not do better I thought--for having been so long at sea, he felt, as he said, like a fish out of water among so many fine folks.
Jim made no reply, but drawing me aside, said--
"Peter, I can"t bear the thoughts of leaving you, and yet I know you wouldn"t like to ship before the mast again; but if I stay ash.o.r.e what am I to do? I"ve no fancy to spending my days in a wherry, and haven"t got one if I had. I"ve taken a liking to Jack, and you"ve many friends, and can do without me, so if you don"t say no I"ll ship with the rest."
I need not repeat what I said to Jim. I was sure that it was the best thing he could do, and advised him accordingly.
"I"m with you, mates," he said, in a husky tone, going back to the rest, and away they all went together, while I returned to Mr Gray"s.
"I wish the lads had shipped on board a peaceable merchantman," he observed when I told him, "but I can"t pretend to dictate to them. I am glad thou hast been better directed, Peter."
Jack and Jim came to see us before the ship went out of harbour. Jack said he knew that he must work for his living, and that he would rather serve aboard a man-o"-war than do anything else.
"I"ll look after him as I used to do you, Peter," said Jim. "And I hope some day we"ll come back with our pockets full of gold, and maybe bear up for wherever you"ve dropped your anchor."
A few days after this a letter came from Mr Troil, inviting Mary, Jack, and me to Shetland. Mary was very unwilling to leave her kind friends, but Mr Gray said that it would be to our advantage, and advised Mary and me to go.
He was right, for when we arrived Mr Troil received us as relatives.
Mary became like a second daughter to him. I a.s.sisted in managing his property, and in the course of a few years Maggie, to whom he left everything he possessed, became my wife, while Mary married the owner of a neighbouring estate.
Some few years after a small coaster came into the Voe. I went down to see what she had on board. A sailor-looking man, with a wooden leg, and a woman, stepped ash.o.r.e.
"That"s him--that"s him!" I heard them exclaim, and in a moment I was shaking hands with Jim and Nancy, who had become his wife. He had got his discharge, and had come, he said, to settle near me. I several times heard from my brother Jack, who, after serving as bo"sun on board a line-of-battle ship, retired from the service with a pension, and joined our family circle in Shetland, where he married, and declared that he was too happy ever to go to sea again.
THE END.