“No,” said Hulton querulously, “I’m not fit to take over the command, and I shall not be for long enough—shall I, Doctor?”
“Well, hardly yet, my dear boy,” was the reply: “and there is no need. I was obliged to get back to my work, in spite of Darrell proving such a formidable rival, but you can wait.”
“Well, read the rest,” said Hulton in an irritable tone.
“The rest?” said Wyatt, with assumed innocency.
“Yes; no nonsense,” said Hulton bitterly; “you are keeping something back.”
Wyatt hesitated for a moment or two, and then tossed the paper to Dick.
“You finish it, lad,” he said.
Dick glanced from one to the other with his face flushing and eyes lighting up, for, like Hulton, he had expected something more.
“Yes,” he cried eagerly, “of course Wyatt is promoted to captain.”
Hulton’s brow wrinkled, and his pale, thin face looked more sunken as he winced as if from a sting of pain, but for some moments he did not speak. Then a faint smile began to appear on his face, and he said sadly: