The captain had been a regular customer for many years, and Mr Fluke held him in great respect.
“I have taken a fancy to that boy of yours, a relative I understand. I have observed how ill he looks, very different from what he was when I saw him first on my last voyage. If you will let me take him a trip I will bring him back safe and sound, the dangers of the sea excepted, and better able by far than he is now to attend to your interests.”
Mr Fluke declined to give a positive answer. He would see if the boy could be spared; he was very useful in the office, and it would be difficult to get any one to supply his place.
“I will come for a reply to-morrow,” said Captain Aggett, as he took his departure.
“Well, are you going to let our Owen make a voyage?” asked Kezia when Mr Fluke came home. “There are plenty of captains who would be ready to take the boy. He would be able to make himself as useful to them as he is to you, and you would be at no cost.”
Mr Fluke, however, only gave Kezia the same reply he had to Captain Aggett.
“I tell you, before long he’ll leave the place vacant whether you like it or not,” observed Kezia in a firm voice, looking sternly at her master.
“You must have your own way, Kezia,” answered Mr Fluke, turning his head aside to avoid her gaze, as a dog does when scolded. “If the boy wishes to go, he may go, but I’ll not send him off against his will.”
Owen was called in and told of Captain Aggett’s offer. He acknowledged that he wished to accept it.
“You have been very kind to me, sir,” he said, “and I do not wish to leave you, but I should like to make a voyage and see something of the world, and I feel as if it would set me up. When I come back I hope to be of more use to you than ever.”