The boy who had brought Dave and his chums to the old temple had been dismissed, and Dunston Porter took them back to Nanpi, where he had accommodations in the best public house the place afforded. Here Billy Dill visited him.
"Does my heart good to see ye again!" cried the old tar. "An' ain't it jest wonderful about Dave? Now stand up, side by side, an' look into thet glass. As like as two beans, say I!" And Dunston Porter agreed with him.
Of course the old sailor had to tell all he knew, and Dave brought out pictures of Caspar Potts and the Wadsworths which he had brought along. In return, Dunston Porter gave Dave pictures of his father and his sister Laura. The boy gazed at the photographs a long while, and the tears filled his eyes as he did so.
"Well, there is one thing sure!" he murmured to Roger. "At any rate, I am no longer a poorhouse nobody!"
"That's right, Dave," returned the senator's son, warmly. "Let me congratulate you. By that picture, your father must be a nice man, and your sister is handsome."
"And to think that they are rich," added Phil. "That's the best of all."
"No, the best of all is to find that I belong somewhere in this world—that I am not a nobody," answered Dave, earnestly.
"Won't Nat Poole and Gus Plum stare when they hear of this!" went on Roger. "I believe it will really make them feel sore."
"Ben and Sam and the others will be glad," said Phil. "And I am sure Doctor Clay will want to congratulate you. Dave, it paid to take this trip to the South Seas, after all, didn't it?"
"I should say it did!" cried Dave. "I shouldn't have wanted to miss it for the world!"