CHAPTER II Outward Bound
The few days preceding the sailing of the Mongolia passed very quickly; Wentworth, accompanied by Armstrong, spent most of the time at Mrs. Wentworth's home in Lincolnshire. Strangely enough, Bob's mother did not, in any way, try to dissuade them from their journey.
"You have the roving instinct of your father, Robert," she said, with pensive calmness. "I have expected this, and can only pray that you may be kept safe in the guiding care of the All Wise Providence which watches over the wanderer on land as on sea."
But his sister had not the same restraint, and it made Armstrong's tender heart sore to witness the grief of the girl.
"You may be killed—you may both be killed," she sobbed.
"There is no fear of that, Lucy," laughed Bob.
"I'll take care of him, Miss Lucy," said Jack, hesitatingly, almost equally affected.
"Why, you are just a boy," she exclaimed, smiling at him through her tears.
"I'm only a year younger than Bob," he protested stoutly, drawing himself up to his full height of five feet seven and a half inches, and looking at her reproachfully; at which, to Jack's dismay, she gave way again to her emotion, her beautiful brown hair falling over her face like a glorious mantle.