The canoe was dropped astern, while the boat pulled back to the brig; the whole manoeuvre, being properly executed, occupying but a very few minutes. The midshipman, attending simply to the work in hand, had not looked at the countenances of the people he had rescued. Just, however, as the boat had hooked on, he cast his eyes at the face of one of his companions, and then at the other. “Why, gunner,” he exclaimed, “I do believe that they are Gerald Desmond and Archie Gordon!”
“You’re right, Tom,” cried Gerald, who was not so far gone as to be unable to speak; “and mighty glad I am to see you—only, as you love us, get us some grub, or we shall be after hopping the twig.”
“No fear about that, young gentleman,” said Dick Needham, who was the warrant-officer in the boat; “we’ll have you on board in a quarter less no time, and under care of the doctor; he’ll soon bring you round, though you mustn’t be eating too much at first.”
The midshipmen and their companions were speedily hoisted on board, when Tom Rogers announced to the commander who they were, and the condition in which he had found them. Broth and other restoratives being quickly prepared, and duly administered, in a very short time they were able to use their tongues sufficiently to give an account of themselves.
“Well, I’m glad we fell in with you,” cried Tom, “and so is my brother Jack—if not for your sake, on account of his old shipmates, Murray and Adair. They would have been precious sorry to lose you, and so should I. And now we’ve fallen in with each other, we shall have the chance of some good fun together, for the brig is to be employed, during the remainder of her commission, in slave-hunting. My brother Jack is only acting-commander of the Romp, but he’s sure to be confirmed before long. He got no end of credit in the work we’ve been engaged in up the Irrawaddy, of which I’ll tell you by and by. I often wished that you fellows were with us. It beat all the service we saw out in South America.”
“And Archie and I have often, of late, said how we longed to have you with us, Tom,” answered Desmond; “not that we’ve had the same sort of fun we enjoyed in our first cruise. It has been much rougher work, on the whole, and I haven’t fallen in with any Irish cousins, or the lots of nice girls we met in the West Indies; but, after all, the life we lead when boat-cruising is as much to my taste as anything I can fancy.”
Tom, of course, replied that he hoped to have some of it, and that he should try to get his brother to send him away on an expedition.
Though but a short time had been lost in picking up the canoe, it was sufficient to allow the dhow to run out of sight. Jack, who was bound for Zanzibar, of course had now to bring up off Mafamale, for the sake of landing Archie and Gerald, and to set Adair’s anxiety about them at rest. He was very glad also of the opportunity he should thus obtain of seeing his old shipmates.
The two midshipmen, though still somewhat weak, had greatly recovered by the time the island was sighted. Scarcely had the Romp dropped her anchor than Adair came on board. His surprise on seeing Jack was almost as great as his satisfaction at finding the midshipmen and the two other men safe and sound. Jack had some time before heard of the death of Kathleen. The recollection of her threw a shade of melancholy over the meeting of the two friends, but after a short time he managed to cast it off, and talked away eagerly of their past adventures and future prospects.
“I am glad to find, Jack, that you are so certain of your promotion,” said Adair; “I wish that I could think the same of my own prospects. Lord Derrynane will do the best he can for me; but when he paid his last visit at the Admiralty, the First Lord told him that, though I was a remarkably promising young officer, he had so many promising young officers deserving of promotion that he should fill the service with commanders if he was to attend to the requests of all his friends. I can only hope for the chance of doing something which must compel their Lordships to promote me.”