The steward was in the act of getting into the boat, as Bob ran down.
"Glad to see you, Mister Repton," the man said, touching his hat. "Have you seen the captain, sir?"
"Yes, I have just left him. He told me I should catch you here."
"Thinking of having another cruise with us, sir?"
"I am thinking about it, Parker, but I don't know whether I shall be able to manage it."
They were soon alongside the Antelope.
"I thought it was you, Mister Repton, when I saw you run down to the boat," Joe Lockett said, as he shook hands with Bob.
"I am glad to see you again, Joe, and I am glad to hear you are first mate now; though of course, I am sorry for Mr. Probert."
"Yes, a bad job for him, a very bad job; but it won't be so bad, in his case, as in some. He has been talking, for the last two or three voyages, of retiring. An old uncle of his died, and left him a few acres of land down in Essex; and he has saved a bit of money out of his pay, and his share of the prizes we have made; and he talked about giving up the sea, and settling down on shore. So now, he will do it. He said as much as that, the night he was wounded.
"'Well,' he said, 'there won't be any more trouble about making up my mind, Joe. If I do get over this job, I have got to lay up as a dismantled hulk, for the rest of my life. I have been talking of it to you, but I doubt whether I should ever have brought myself to it, if it had not been for them Frenchmen's shot.'