The Flamp, The Ameliorator, and The Schoolboy's Apprentice Part 10

But the cave was empty. Chimp climbed the rock before the entrance and called, 'Bi-i-illykins, Bi-i-illykins!' No answer. 'I must have missed him on his way back to the creek,' he thought, and hurried to the sh.o.r.e again.

'Be quick!' cried the Captain. 'Time's up!'

'But I can't find him,' Chimp called, floundering from boulder to boulder.

'Can't find him?' echoed the Captain. 'That's very rum. I suppose he wants to avoid the pain of parting. Come along; we can't stay any longer now.'

So with a heavy heart Chimp took his place in the boat and watched how with every stroke of the oars the distance widened between himself and the island.

'Weigh the anchor!' cried the Captain, the moment they were on board.

_The Tattooed Quaker_ was a superb yacht, and in the ardour of exploration Chimp forgot the Hermit and everything else. He examined the cabin and the berths, he made friends with the steward, he descended into the lazarette, where peering into the refrigerator, he found half a game pie, and forthwith devoured it. He conversed learnedly with the engineers about the size of the cylinders; he decided which hammock would best minister to his own comfort; he overhauled the Captain's stock of books, and by the time these duties were accomplished _The Tattooed Quaker_ was well out to sea, and the island was only a thin line on the horizon. And then a feeling of sadness for the loss of poor old Billykins, left there all alone again, took hold of the boy, and he retired dismally to his hammock to mope.

After dinner, however, at which meal he revived marvellously, he was in gay enough spirits to tell the story of the Hermit's apprentices.h.i.+p. The Captain was in ecstasies. 'What a yarn for the old lady!' he remarked again and again. 'What a yarn!'

Suddenly, as they sat in the darkling cabin, there appeared in the doorway a figure which seemed in the gloom to resemble an elderly man with a long grey beard.

'Mercy! What's that?' the Captain shouted, leaping from his chair and drawing back. 'Who are you? What do you want?'

The figure took a step into the room. 'Simian,' it said, 'don't you recognise me?'

'Why, it's Billykins!' cried Chimp, running forward and seizing the Hermit's hand.

'Great Heavens! Master Augustus!' exclaimed the Captain. 'Where did you spring from?'

'From the hamper!' said the Hermit.

Chimp and the Captain stared at each other for a moment, and then--'What!' roared the Captain, 'a stowaway! Well, you're something like an apprentice, you are!' And he smote the table till the s.h.i.+p trembled, and laughed like the north wind.

The Hermit waited patiently till the storm abated, while Chimp gazed at him in wonderment and admiration.

Then, in the lulls of the Captain's merriment, he explained. 'You see,'

he said, 'this boy has changed me considerably. I see things with new eyes. And when I was standing there by the boat, the desire to run away and be for ever quit of the island and solitude came strongly upon me.'

'Oh, what a model apprentice!' the Captain exclaimed.

'So,' continued the Hermit, a little abashed, 'well--so I crawled into the hamper.'

'Hooray!' cried Chimp; it's splendid. But aren't you hungry?'

'Hungry?' said the Captain, 'I should think he is. Steward!' he called, 'bring some supper for Master Augustus.'

The steward came running into the cabin and stood transfixed--all eyes.

His appearance set the Captain off again; 'Don't be scared,' he said; 'he's alive, right enough.'

'I didn't see the gentleman come aboard,' the steward found words to say.

'No,' said the Captain, 'no more didn't I. No more didn't no one. Master Augustus has his own way of coming aboard.'

At this the Hermit laughed too, and the spell being broken, the steward brought supper as to a man of flesh and blood.

'So I'm a runaway, Sim,' the Hermit said cheerily when he had finished; 'and there was no Mother Porker to catch me on the landing.'

'Catch you? No! You're A1 at it!' Chimp replied.

'Yes,' resumed the Hermit, stretching his limbs, 'we're going to be comrades again. But when we're in England, mind, no fairs, Sim, no caravans.'

Chimp laughed.

'And we'll go and see Ranji,' said the Hermit.

THE END

The Dumpy Books for Children.

Selected by E. V. LUCAS.

I. THE FLAMP, THE AMELIORATOR, AND THE SCHOOLBOY'S APPRENTICE, _by E. V.

LUCAS_

II. MRS. TURNER'S CAUTIONARY STORIES

III. THE BAD FAMILY, _by Mrs. Fenwick_

IV. LITTLE BLACK SAMBO, _by Helen Bannerman_. With Pictures in colours by the Author

V. THE BOUNTIFUL LADY, _by Thomas Cobb_

VI. A CAT BOOK, Portraits _by H. Officer Smith_, Characteristics _by E.

V. LUCAS_