“He was a plucky fellow, whoever he was, and I wish we had been here to help him,” was Lord Seabright’s comment upon this story.
When all the business had been settled, and they returned once more to the Saga, the yacht seemed to Breeze delightfully home-like and comfortable, and he was more than ever glad that his cruise on her was to be extended. Nimbus was already hard at work in the galley, from which came a happy clatter of pots and pans, and the tones of his voice as he told his awe-stricken young assistant marvellous tales of his thrilling adventures and hairbreadth escapes during the trip to the geysers.
“But where is Mr. Whymper?” asked Lord Seabright of Mr. Marlin, who replied that the gentleman was turned in, recovering from his recent exertions.
“Lazy dog!” exclaimed his friend; “I’ll soon stir him up.” And after giving orders for the yacht to put to sea, he went below. As he entered the saloon, Mr. Whyte Whymper, who was lying on a lounge, threw down the semi-monthly Reykjavik paper, which, as it was wholly printed in Icelandic, he had been trying in vain to read, and exclaimed,
“Awfully glad you’ve come back, old fellow! Haven’t had a thing to do since you left except read this stoopid paper. Went ashore once, but got mixed up in a beastly row, and haven’t been off the ship since. Awfully glad, ’pon honor. What sort of a trip have you had? and how did our young Yankee friend enjoy it?”
“What sort of a row did you get into?” inquired Lord Seabright, without answering these questions, and gazing suspiciously at the bandages with which his friend’s head and hands were swathed. “Was it in connection with a fire?”
“Well, yes,” admitted the other, hesitatingly, “it was a sort of a fire, and some children were left in rather an uncomfortable position, because the beggars outside were too stoopid to know what to do.”
“And you showed them?”
“Yes, I put them up to a wrinkle that I thought might be useful to them at some future time.”
“Whyte, you are a splendid fellow!” exclaimed Lord Seabright, enthusiastically. “You saved those children’s lives at the risk of your own, and then hurried away to avoid being thanked for it. After this I’d like to hear anybody call you lazy and selfish again!” With this he stepped forward to grasp his friend’s hand.