“They say your father is a nabob; is he?” I asked.
“A nabob? No,” he answered. “He is a great deal more important person—he is a brigadier; at least he was in India, and mamma always speaks of him as the Brigadier, and people always talk of her as Mrs Brigadier.”
“Then I suppose you are the young Brigadier?” I said, very naturally.
“No, indeed, I am not,” he answered. “But there is the house. And, I say, I am very much obliged to you, remember, for what you have done for me. I see you are up to joking; but let me advise you not to come any of your jokes over my father, or mamma either. Indeed, you had better rather try it with him than with her. You would think twice before you ever made the attempt again.”
Passing through an iron gateway, we proceeded up to the house, which was some little way from the road. It was low, with a broad verandah round it, and I found was known as Chuttawunga Bungalow. I saw the name on the side-post of the gateway. A tall, dark-skinned man, dressed in white, a broad-rimmed cap on his head, came to the door. He seemed rather doubtful as to admitting old Dick and me.
“Here, Chetta, let us in at once!” exclaimed the young gentleman in an authoritative tone. “These are my friends. They have rendered me an essential service. The boy saved my life when I was drowning, and the old man pulled us both out of the water, when we could not hold on much longer. Where is my papa? And, I say, Chetta, do not go and tell Mrs Brigadier just yet. I would rather have the matter over with one of them first.”
I felt rather awe-struck at having to go into the presence of so great a man, for I had pictured him as a tall, ferocious-looking personage, with a huge moustache and a military air and manner. Great was my astonishment when I saw, seated in an arm-chair, cross-legged, with one foot resting on a foot-stool, a small man with yellow hair, thin cheeks, and habited in a silk dressing-gown and nankeen trousers.
“Why, Richard Alfred Chesterton!” he exclaimed in a sharp, querulous tone, “where have you been all this time? It is as well your mother had to go out, or she would have been thrown into a state of great alarm; and something else, I suspect, too,” he said, in a lower tone.
“Well, papa,” answered Richard, when the brigadier had ceased speaking, “you would not address me harshly, if you knew how very nearly you were having the misery of losing me altogether. It is a long story, so I will not now enter into details. It will be sufficient for you to know that I was in a boat, and that out of that boat I fell into the dangerous current of the harbour; and had it not been for the bravery and gallantry of this young lad whom I have brought with me, I should have been at this moment food for the fish in the Solent sea, or a fit subject for a coroner’s inquest, had my body been discovered.”
The brigadier opened his grey eyes wider and wider, as the boy continued speaking.