"Well, I will think it over, and let you know in the morning. I must

certainly consult Mr. Barnett, for he is your trustee as well as mine. If

we go I shall work my way out. It will be a big expense, anyhow, and I

don't mean, if possible, to draw upon my capital beyond three or four

hundred pounds. I believe living is cheap out there, and if I buy three or

four mules I shall then have to pay only the wages for the muleteers, and

the expenses of living. Of course I shall arrange for my income and half-

pay to be sent out to some firm at Lima. Now, you had better go off to

bed, and don't buoy yourself up with the belief that you are going, for I

have by no means decided upon taking you yet."

 

"You will decide to take me, Harry," the lad said confidently, and then

added with a laugh: "the fact that you should have adopted a plan like

this is quite sufficient to show that you want somebody to look after

you."

 

Harry Prendergast did not get much sleep that night He blamed himself for

having mentioned the matter at all to Bertie, and yet the more he thought

over it the more he felt that it would be very pleasant to have his

brother with him. The lad was full of fun and mischief, but he knew that

he had plenty of sound sense, and would be a capital companion, and the

fact that he had been three years at sea, and was accustomed to turn his

hand to anything, was all in his favour. If nothing came of it he would

only have lost a couple of years, and, as the boy himself had said, the

time would not have been altogether wasted. Bertie was down before him in

the morning. He looked anxiously at his brother as he came in.

 

"Well, Harry?"

 

"Well, I have thought it over in every light. But in the first place,

Bertie, if you go with me you will have to remember that I am your

commanding officer. I am ten years older than you, and besides I am a

lieutenant in the King's Navy, while you are only a midshipman in the

merchant service. Now, I shall expect as ready obedience from you as if I

were captain of my own ship and you one of my men; that is absolutely

essential."

 

"Of course, Harry, it could not be otherwise."

 

"Very well, then; in the next place I shall abide by what Mr. Barnett

says. He is your guardian as well as trustee, and has a perfect right to

put a veto upon any wild expedition of this sort. Lastly, I should hope,

although I don't say that this is absolutely necessary, that you may get

your employer's promise to take you back again in order that you may

complete your time."

 

"Thank you very much, Harry!" the lad said gratefully. "The first

condition you may rely upon being performed, and I think the third will be

all right, for I know that I have always been favourably reported upon.

Old Prosser told me so himself when he said that I should have a rise in

my pay this voyage. As to Mr. Barnett, of course I can't say, but I should