“I wouldn’t wish you to do so, Captain Beecroft. The long voyage will do me a wonderful deal of good; besides I don’t really long to be home. I’d rather be back in Persia again.”
The captain looked at him somewhat searchingly and smiled.
I was walking up and down with the pair of them, with my tail in the air and looking very contented and pleased, because the sun was shining so brightly, and the ocean, which I could catch peeps at through the port-holes, was as blue as lapis lazuli.
“I say,” said the captain, “did you lose your heart out there?”
“I did,” was the reply. “Oh, I am ten years older than Beebee, and perhaps more, and nothing may ever come of it. Put, sir, she saved my life.”
“Do you see this cat?” he continued, taking me up in his arms. “Well, this is Shireen. The girl who so bravely saved my life gave Shireen to me.”
“Wait a minute,” said Captain Beecroft. “Come into my cabin here. Now sit down and just tell me all the story.”
Edgar did so, and I think that from that moment these two men were fast friends.
My master also showed the captain the beautiful little ruby that was set in my tooth.
“A strange notion!” said the latter.