In truth Hector was there, but with him was the colonel's new groom, the late ostler, who had been so efficient a protector to the dog, and the captain of the ship, whom he knew so well.
"Barge a-hoi!" cried the captain.
"Ay—ay!" shouted Ingestrie in reply, and the wherry shot alongside the barge.
"Well," said the captain, "I do think for you all to go on such a party as this, and not ask me and Hector, is too bad."
"But," said Sir Richard Blunt, "you told me you were going to be very busy at the docks."
"So I did, but I found our owner had not come to town, and I have nothing to do to-day. I called at your house, colonel, hoping to be in time to come with you, but you had gone. Hector, however, saw me, and made such a racket I was forced to bring him."
"And no one can be more glad to see you and Hector than I," cried the colonel.
"And I didn't like, sir," said the ostler, "not for to come for to go, when Pison said as he'd like to come."
"Very good," said the colonel smiling. "Come on board."
The waterman who was with the wherry laid it alongside the barge, and having been liberally paid for his freight, rowed off again, leaving with the barge party, his two customers and the dog.