Bob Strong's Holidays Part 46

Both had to wait to have their curiosity satisfied until their aunt Polly and Captain Dresser came up to London at Christmastide; when at length the two of them managed to worm the secret out of the Captain.

The old sailor had been giving them all the news about those they had known down at Southsea; how d.i.c.k had at last been accepted for the navy and entered as a second-cla.s.s boy on board the _Saint Vincent_, being bound to make a full able-bodied sailor in time; and how h.e.l.lyer had got a little pension in addition to his pay, as he was now "chief officer"

of the coastguard; after which, the Captain at last referred to Sarah, "the good Sarah!"

"By Jove!" said he, "I shall never forget that night your box came! I was playing cribbage with your aunt Polly--and she cheated me, too, by the same token, in the fuss that occurred on opening the parcel, by scoring 'two for his heels,' when it only should have been 'one for his n.o.b.' You never saw such a disgraceful thing done in your life, really a most barefaced piece of cheating!"

"Oh!" exclaimed Mrs Gilmour. "Sure, I'm listening to all those stories you are telling! Won't I pay you out, too, by and by, when you come round to 'the Moorings' again. You just wait and see!"

"I a.s.sure you, ma'am, it's a fact," persisted the Captain unblus.h.i.+ngly, his little eyes blinking with fun under his bushy eyebrows, which were going up and down at a fine rate, I can tell you. "I saw you move the pegs, ma'am, when you thought I wasn't looking!"

"But, what did Sarah say?" asked Nellie, clinging to the old sailor and trying to attract his attention to the point at issue, from which he seemed sadly inclined to stray. "What did the good Sarah say?"

"Eh?" said he, c.o.c.king his head on one side in his most bird-like fas.h.i.+on and pretending not to understand his questioner. "Eh?"

"Oh, do tell us!" cried Bob, catching hold of him by the other arm.

"How did 'the good Sarah' look?"

"Why," chuckled the Captain, bringing down his old malacca cane with a thump on the floor. "Jolly, my boy, jolly!"

THE END.