"Only because I am compelled to, Captain, do I give this boy into your care. He is good and innocent. Bear in mind that from now on you are accountable to God for his soul."
The Captain muttered something which could not be understood and tried to make an end to the scene. He took the boy by the arm, made a stiff bow, and stepped to the door. Here, on hearing the news that Willy was about to leave the school, most of his companions had assembled to bid him good-bye. Many shed tears, and Peppo, at the last moment, came flying in breathless. "Oh, Willy, Willy," he cried embracing him, "never, never shall I forget how good you were to me. Who will protect me now when they all tease me?"
"Oh, but you are all here together and like each other so much," answered Willy. "Who is going to protect me from this bad man?" The last words he whispered in the ear of his little friend.
"Your holy guardian angel," he answered, "and we will all pray for you."
"Come on, nephew, I don't want to stay here any longer," urged the
Captain, and a moment later the two had left the College of the Holy
Saviour and were out in the street.
Immediately after their departure Father Somazzo called his pupils into the chapel and there they commended their small companion to the Blessed Virgin and the holy guardian angels. Of all there assembled small Peppo prayed most earnestly.
"O holy guardian angel, thou who art my protector," he said in his childish simplicity, "Willy will now have need of two guardian angels instead of one, if God will permit, go and help Willy's guardian angel to protect him from the bad man who has taken him away. You see here where I am the good Fathers will watch over me, and it will be enough if each day you but look at me and then fly away to Willy. But, dear angel, come to me when I am in danger and call for help."
After this the boys returned to the schoolroom, and as soon as they were at work, Father Somazzo took his hat and walking-stick and went to the city to consult Mr. Black, an English lawyer. To him he stated the case assuring the learned gentleman that the father would not willingly have placed his child under the guardianship of this younger brother, who was a gambler and a spendthrift, and asked if there was any way of getting the boy a way from him. Mr. Black said that according to law the uncle, as next of kin, could claim the guardianship of his brother's children, and unless sufficient proof that he was not a fit person to have such guardianship could be secured immediately, months might elapse before he could be taken from him. At the time of our story Hongkong was not connected with Europe by telegraph, as it now is, and it took from eight to ten weeks to communicate with people in Dublin.
CHAPTER III.
Aboard the "St. George."