"Right! Right, all the way through! A lad who thinks, who uses his headpiece! Good!"
The stranger brought a big bony fist down on to the edge of the fiddle with such force that had Dudley attempted to do the same he would have suffered considerable pain. But Mr. Blunt did not seem to notice any. He smiled at Dudley while he repeated the words. As for the young fellow opposite him, he went red to the roots of his hair, while his thoughts flew away back to the school which he had so recently quitted. Had anyone there given him credit for keen perception, or even taken the trouble to imagine that Dudley Compton ever had a serious thought?
"He is hopeless where work or thought is concerned," the headmaster had said to Dudley's guardian, only a year before. "You will do nothing with him in an office. Send him abroad. He is a jolly lad, good-tempered, steady, and with plenty of pluck, but little head."
And here was a stranger praising Dudley for the very thing which his late master had never imagined him to possess. Straightway he resolved to cultivate a habit which evidently gave pleasure to this tall gentleman.
"Going out to join your parents?" was the next question, fired at Dudley as he devoured his meal. "Where do you disembark? Don't answer if you wish to keep such matters to yourself. I'm not inquisitive, but we seem to have struck up a pleasant acquaintance, and, after all, there are few enough English over in South America, and it's always nice to meet one and exchange views. I'm getting off at Montevideo, where I transship, and make up the River Paraná. Ever been out before?"
"Never. And I am not going to join my parents, sir, for they are dead. I'm an orphan, and have been so for the past ten years."
"Dear, dear! You're about seventeen, I take it. Eh?"
"I shall be in a month, sir."
"Then you have nothing to complain of with regard to English feeding. You are five feet nine, I should reckon."
"And a half," exclaimed Dudley, his nausea and sickness now entirely forgotten, while the blush of robust health was fast returning to his cheeks. "Five feet nine and a half inches, in my socks, sir."