“They have not failed, sir,” protested Scott. “The ship will come here, and we will join her then, or perish in the attempt.”
“Are you not afraid some untoward event will defeat your honest intentions?”
“If they are defeated it will not be our fault.”
“No, I suppose not; but whom have you there?” inquired the head steward, for the first time observing Ole, who had pressed forward to hear Scott’s remarks. “Ole?”
“Yes, sir; that’s the valiant Ole, of Norway,” replied the joker.
His presence was satisfactorily explained by the coxswain.
“Why did you desire to leave the ship, Ole? Didn’t we use you well?” asked Mr. Blaine.
“Very well indeed, sir; but I was bashful, and did not wish to see some people in Christiansand,” replied the waif.
“What people?”
Ole evaded all inquiries, as he had a dozen times before, and declined to explain anything relating to his past history. Mr. Blaine said he had heard the party had taken the canal steamer, and he immediately proceeded to Stockholm by railroad. He at once telegraphed to Mr. Lowington at Copenhagen, that he had found all the absentees, and asked for instructions.