These thoughts, however, were but idle fancies, I reflected when we sighted Flores; for, even if we had been given up, the news would now soon be sent on that the old ship was still to the fore. So, when Captain Miles had taken in fresh water and provisions, besides buying a new chronometer, and then shaped a course direct for the English Channel, I looked forward anxiously to relieving my parent’s anxiety as much as I did at the realisation of my boyhood’s dream of seeing London and going to school.
Chapter Nineteen.
Dad.
My tale will soon come to an end.
After leaving Santa Cruz, we had a fine steady wind from the north-west, right on our quarter, all the way to the chops of the Channel; and this enabled us to accomplish the intervening twelve hundred miles of distance in ten days’ time.
We were equally lucky in getting up to the river, although it was well on in the month of October, when easterly winds generally prevail; for, without requiring the assistance of a tug, after making the Lizard, we passed up towards London in fine style, walking at a great rate by Dunnose, Beachy Head, Dungeness, and all those other landmarks that mariners know so well.
When we got to Gravesend, I had a great surprise; for, who on earth do you think should come off to the ship as we anchored in the stream, waiting for a pilot to take us up the river to the Saint Katherine’s Docks, where we were bound? The very last person in the world whom you or I could possibly have expected to meet me there!
Who do you think?