ancient cut, and a white nightcap on his bald head. I should have said had been feeding, for the process was arrested by the noise on deck. They all looked up as we entered, and Katty in her eagerness upset the basin as she sprang forward to throw herself into Uncle Boz’s arms. She instantly ran back and took Jack by the hand, crying out, “Dear Jack couldn’t help it. If he bigger, he wouldn’t let naughty smuggler carry me away.”
They had not been ill-treated; the old Frenchman especially had been very kind to them.
“Ah! yes, I have von littel grandchild lik dat at home,” he remarked.
So sudden had been our attack that we found plenty of things on board to condemn the vessel; while, of course, those concerned would be tried for the abduction of Jack and Katty. As the old Frenchman was clearly only a passenger, he was put on board the lugger we had previously boarded. I was glad that he escaped, on account of his kindness to sweet Katty and Jack, though I suspect that he was an absconding debtor. I should think, however, that his creditors might as well have tried to skin a flint as him. We carried the lugger in off the coastguard station, where more hands were put on board. Before noon we had placed sweet Katty in Aunt Deb’s loving arms, not much the worse for her excursion.
Jack went to sea, and Katty’s cabinet was adorned with numberless articles strange and beautiful from all parts of the world. Jack, of course, wherever he could get a run on shore, had to come and inspect them. By many a gallant deed he won his commander’s commission, and then Katty became his fond, devoted wife.
In that old churchyard high above the German Ocean are three small monuments placed by some loving friends of those who lie beneath. To no one more truly can the epitaph be applied than that which is cut on each tomb—that of the brother, of the sister, and of the faithful African—Hic jacet in pace.