“Indeed there could not, Your Majesty,” said Frank.
“Well,” said the king pleasantly, “I see that you are fond of the life of midshipmen. What would you say to accepting, in exchange, lieutenancies in the Royal Navy?”
Jack’s surprise was so great that he was unable to utter a word. His face turned red, and he hung his head as would a small boy caught in some mischief.
Frank was equally as astonished.
“I—we—I——” he stammered.
The king laughed outright, and Lord Hastings smiled faintly.
“You may make sure, sirs,” continued King George, “that you shall receive your commissions as fourth lieutenants in the British navy before another sun has set! You may go!”
Here is the fitting place to take leave, for the time being, of Midshipman Frank Chadwick and Midshipman John Templeton, of the Royal British Navy; here is the time to say a brief farewell to the two gallant lads whose adventures we have followed through these pages, for the final chapter in the lives of Frank Chadwick and Jack Templeton, as British midshipmen, has been written—though not the last chapter of their adventures in the greatest war of all history. The King of England kept his royal word and on the day following the boys’ brief interview with him they were duly commissioned Lieutenant Frank Chadwick and Lieutenant John Templeton.
So their further adventures and achievements, in a different capacity, but in the same cause, and under the same brave and gallant commander, Lord Hastings, will be duly chronicled in a second volume, entitled: “The Boy Allies Under Two Flags; or, Sweeping the Enemy from the Sea.”
THE END.