Emerald acquiesced with a snort and a prolonged shake the moment his rider’s foot touched the ground, and Sir George, filling the whole of the narrow passage to the bar, bounced against Florian de St. Croix returning from an interview with the Abbé on the first floor. Each must have been thinking of the other, for both exclaimed mentally, “The very man!” while at the same instant Slap-Jack, looking rather sheepish, and not in his usual spirits, slunk out of another room and tried to leave unobserved.
“Foretop, there!” hallooed Sir George, good-humouredly, “as you are aloft, look smart and make yourself useful. See that lubber gives Emerald a go-down of chilled water, and tows him about at a walk till I come out.”
“Ay, ay, sir,” replied Slap-Jack, his whole face brightening up. He loved to be so addressed by his old commander; and although he was to-day not without his own troubles, or he would scarce have been here so early, he set to work to obey instructions with a will.
Florian accompanied the new arrival into the bar, where Mrs. Dodge, all smiles and ribbons, drew for this honoured guest a measure of the best with her own fat hands; while Alice, who looked as if she had been crying, hovered about admiringly, watching Sir George quench his thirst as if he had been some rare and beautiful animal she had paid her penny to see.
“Good stuff!” said the baronet, setting down his jug with a sigh. “Better than vin ordinaire, or even three-water grog. Eh, Florian?”
But Florian’s mind was bent on other matters. “You are always so occupied,” said he, “that I can never catch you for half an hour alone. Will you have your horse led home, and walk back the short way with me? We had more leisure on board ‘The Bashful Maid,’ after all; especially in the ‘Trades.’”
Sir George assented cheerily. For the moment his gloomy thoughts fled at the sound of the other’s voice. They were tried comrades in many a rough adventure, and it takes a good deal to turn a man’s heart from an old friend.
“Of course I will,” he assented, putting his arm through Florian’s. “We can cross the deer-park, and go over the footbridge above the waterfall. It saves nearly half a mile. Slap-Jack,” he added, emerging from the house, “take that horse home, under easy sail, d’ye mind? and see him well dressed over when you get to the stable.”
Then he and Florian strolled quietly away to cross the deer-park and thread a certain picturesque dingle adorned by the above-mentioned waterfall. It was the show bit of scenery at Hamilton Hill, and the track leading to it was so precipitous as to be impassable by any four-footed animal less nimble than a goat.
It was Slap-Jack’s duty to conduct Emerald by an easier route to his own stable; and for this purpose the adventurous seaman proceeded to “get up the side,” as he called it, an ascent which he effected with some difficulty, and so commenced his voyage with considerable prudence, according to orders, “under easy sail.”