A royal smuggler

IN AN INSTANT IT HAD FIXED ITS FANGS UPON THE OLD MAN’S ARM.
Or THE ADVENTURES OF
TWO   BOYS   IN   THE   INDIAN ARCHIPELAGO
BY WILLIAM DALTON,
CHICAGO: M. A. Donohue & Co.
Copyrighted 1902 By THOMPSON & THOMAS
A ROYAL SMUGGLER.
“News from Uncle Adam!” cried my brother Martin, as the maid, one morning, placed upon the breakfast-table a letter, bearing a foreign postmark; and the words are still fresh in my memory, for that epistle influenced the fates of my father, brother, and myself. It was addressed to our parent, in reply to one he had sent to Batavia, some twelve months before.
“My dear brother Claud,” it ran, “I have received yours, containing the sad intelligence of the death of your poor wife, and the almost simultaneous loss of your fortune, through the failure of that rogue of a banker. I will not, however, waste time in words of condolence, but at once proceed to business. Well, you are poor— I am rich; you have no occupation—I have too much . You are young—I am getting old; for there are many years’ difference in our ages. Thus, in more ways than one, we may assist each other. I can help you with money, and you can help brother Adam by employing your energies in his commercial affairs out here in Batavia. But, as deeds are better than words, I herewith inclose a draft, and beg that you will, with all convenient speed, take passage for yourself and my two nephews for this island.
“Yours, my dear brother, lovingly, “Adam Blake.
“P.S.—I am sorry to add, that I cannot offer you and the boys a home in my house, as I am no longer a lonely man, my chief reason for marrying again being for the sake of my dear little Lip-lap, your niece.”
“Won’t it be a jolly voyage! How good of Uncle Adam!” cried Martin.