"It's reward for having done your duty, old chap," he said. "I, too, have mine—I have Laddie back again."
"Can you stand the receipt of serious news, Osborne?" asked Captain M'Bride gravely.
Webb and Dixon looked at the skipper with ill-disguised astonishment. The idea of breaking bad news to a sick man seemed, to say the least of it, rather out of place.
"I'm afraid that, when this war's over," continued Captain M'Bride, "you'll never go back to the old British and Pacific Company."
"Has the company smashed?" asked Osborne with evident concern.
"Smashed? Not it," replied the skipper. "Who ever heard of a shipping concern going smash in these days of high freightage? No, Osborne, it's not that. In recognition of your services the Admiralty have transferred you from the R.N.R. to the Royal Navy—a signal honour."
"And that means," added Osborne, "that not for the period of the war only, but after, I'll still be under the White Ensign."
"Ay," exclaimed Webb. "Under the White Ensign—you lucky bounder!"
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At the Villafield Press, Glasgow, Scotland