Contents
CAPTAIN JIM
CHAPTER I
JOHN O’NEILL’S LEGACY
“Queer, isn’t it?” Jim said.
“Rather!” said Wally.
They were sitting on little green chairs in Hyde Park. Not far off swirled the traffic of Piccadilly; glancing across to Hyde Park Corner, they could see the great red motor-’buses, meeting, halting, and then rocking away in different directions, hooting as they fled. The roar of London was in their ears.
It was a sunny morning in September. The Park was dotted in every direction with shining perambulators, propelled by smart nurses in uniform, and tenanted by proud little people, fair-haired and rosy, and extremely cheerful. Wally liked the Park babies. He referred to them collectively as “young dukes.”
“They all look so jolly well tubbed, don’t they?” he remarked, straying from the subject in hand. “Might be soap advertisements. Look, there’s a jolly little duke in that gorgeous white pram, and a bigger sized duke trotting alongside, with a Teddy-bear as big as himself. Awful nice kids.” He smiled at the babies in the way that made it seem ridiculous that he should be grown-up and in uniform.
“They can’t both be dukes,” said Jim literally. “Can’t grow more than one in a family; at least not at the same time, I believe.”