Bob was astonished at his singular behavior, and about an hour afterward, while he was eating his dinner, he was still more amazed by the appearance of one of the sailors he had seen with Mr. Evans—for that was the name of his liberal passenger—who entered without knocking, and began his business without ceremony.
"I am Captain Coons, master of the ship Spartan, which is to sail from this port for China, day after to-morrow," said he. "Be gone three years, probably. Want a boy, and have been instructed by Mr. Evans, my owner, to pay you a hundred dollars advance. What do you say, Bob? Here's your chance. You needn't mind pumping for salt water about it, for I am in dead earnest. Here's the money if you'll say you will put down your name."
Bob could not say any thing immediately, for he found it impossible to speak. He looked at the roll of bills the captain held in his hand, then at his mother, and being unable to restrain himself any longer, he jumped up and ran out of the house. He did not shout, but he made a standing jump of eight feet and a-half, and then began to haul in an imaginary rope, hand over hand.
"What do I say, Bob?" said he to himself, in an excited whisper. "I say I'll go, and won't I do my best? Captain Coons's boots will shine so that he can see his face in them a mile off; and he'll never have to tell somebody to make the bunks over after me."
The fisher-boy did not say, "I'll soon be second mate, and then first mate, and then captain," as Tom Newcombe had done. His ideas extended no further, just then, than the faithful performance of his duties as boy.
Bob took a good many steps about the beach, and made several more long standing jumps before he worked off his excitement, and then he returned to the house, where he found the captain engaged in conversation with his mother. He saw, at a glance, that the matter had been settled during his absence, for his mother's purse lay upon the table, and it was larger than it had ever been before.
"Those mottoes did it, my lad," said the captain, after he had told Mrs. Jennings that Mr. Evans had heard all of Bob's history from the grocer. "They pleased my owner wonderfully; and he asked me to tell you to bear one thing in mind, and that is, that a steady, honest, industrious boy never wants for friends, be he rich or poor. I shall expect to see you on board the Spartan at six o'clock this evening."
Bob reported to the captain promptly at the hour. A small portion of his advance had been expended for an outfit; but when he stood on the deck of his vessel, and waved his farewell to his mother, he knew that he had left her provided for.
"That's what comes of giving back them gold pieces," said Xury, standing up in his boat and waving his hat to the fisher-boy. "If he had kept 'em, like the governor wanted him to do, he wouldn't be on board that fine ship now."
Every one of the members of the band saw Bob start on his voyage, and it must be confessed that they breathed easier than they had done for many a day, when they beheld his vessel shaping her course down the bay. The principal had dismissed them with a sharp reprimand, and, when they resumed their work in the harbor, they lived in a state of constant fear and excitement, expecting every moment to find Mr. Grimes after them with a warrant. The fact that Bob spoke to them very civilly whenever he met them did not make them feel secure, and not until they saw his vessel fairly out of the harbor, were they satisfied that he did not intend to have them punished for what they had done. Then every one of them was sorry that they had treated him so unkindly, and, if the fisher-boy had come back to the village, he never would have had any more trouble with the old members of the Crusoe band.