"No, I'm going with you," was the decisive answer.
"An' ah hev bin hired as general factotum," announced the negro, with a grin.
"Why, Jeff, what does all this mean?" asked Tom. "I was going to engage some trustworthy men to go along."
"You don't need any," said Jeff shortly. "You did me a good turn once, Tom Dacre, that I'll never forget. You saved me from death, and likewise from a criminal life."
"But your work here, Jeff; you can't leave that to go on this cruise. Really, I——"
"It's all been arranged," calmly announced Jeff. "My uncle agrees that it's my duty to stand by you in your trouble. So another man is already on my job. And now that's all accounted for, let's get under way at once," he went on calmly.
Tom looked interrogatively at the negro, who stood modestly in the doorway, grinning widely and twisting and untwisting a pair of agile legs.
"Oh!" exclaimed Jeff with a laugh, seeing Tom's look, and interpreting it correctly as a question as to the negro's identity, "that's Rosewater. He——"
"Yas, sah! Yas, sah! Yas, sah!" said Rosewater, bowing three times with wonderful swiftness.
"He's been a sort of handy man to me round the dock, and when he heard I was going on this cruise, he insisted on coming, too. We'll find him useful. He can——'