"
"That's where you've made such a mess of things," broke in his son.
"Why on earth you two old men couldn't--"
"Easy," said the startled captain. "When you are in the early fifties,
my lad, your ideas about age will be more accurate. Besides, Nugent is
seven or eight years older than I am."
"What became of him?" inquired Jem.
"He was off the moment we berthed," said his father, suppressing a smile.
"I don't mean that he bolted--he'd got enough starch left in him not to
do that--but he didn't trespass on our hospitality a moment longer than
was necessary. I heard that he got a passage home on the Columbus. He
knew the master. She sailed some time before us for London. I thought
he'd have been home by this."
It was not until two days later, however, that the gossip in Sunwich
received a pleasant fillip by the arrival of the injured captain. He
came down from London by the midday train, and, disdaining the privacy
of a cab, prepared to run the gauntlet of his fellow-townsmen.
A weaker man would have made a detour, but he held a direct course, and
with a curt nod to acquaintances who would have stopped him walked
swiftly in the direction of home.
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