"Ah, le petit bon homme vit encore!" cried Antoine, hearing the voice
and bending over from his seat on the after-thwart, being anxious as to
the condition of the patients to whom Jacques was ministering. "Donnez
lui encore d'eau de vie, mon ami!"
Jacques thereupon repeated the dose of brandy to Bob, who closed his
eyes again and leant back, the spirit and the sound of the strange
language, with the queer surroundings that had met his gaze on looking
round the fo'c's'le of the lugger, making him believe he was still in a
dream.
"Where am I?" he presently repeated, rousing up again. "Where am I?"
"In France," replied Jacques in English as good as his own, smiling as
he spoke. "At least, you're aboard a French vessel; and, that's as good
as being in France!"
"But, you are English," replied Bob freely. "You are English, eh?"
"Yes, I'm English," answered the other. "But, you had better not talk
now. Wait till after you've taken some nice soup which I've got cooking
here that will put new strength into you, and then we'll tell each other
all about ourselves."
He then left Bob to attend to Dick, whom it took considerably longer to
bring round; although by administering a few drops of brandy at
intervals, varied by an occasional spoonful every now and then of the
savoury soup from the saucepan on the fire, which was really a regular
French stew, Dick became ultimately, as Bob already was through the same
regimen, much better--the poor boy now recovering his consciousness and
being able to speak.
The two invalids were then put to bed comfortably in a couple of bunks
on either side of the fo'c's'le; while the lugger, whose name, by the
way, was the _Jeanne d'Arc_, reached over towards the English coast, to
see what fishing she could get in those prohibited waters.
Late in the afternoon, Bob and Dick both woke up refreshed; when, each
had another jorum of the savoury soup, which Bob said subsequently was
the nicest thing, he believed, he had ever tasted in his life! The
boys, then, feeling quite well, so to speak, went on to tell the kind
sailors all about their adventures, Bob, of course, being the principal
spokesman.
"Ah!" observed Jacques. "You are living at Portsmouth, then?"
"No, I've only been stopping there for the season," replied Bob. "But,
I like it very much!"
"It's my native place, sir. I was born there!" cried Jacques. "My
father was in the English navy; and my old mother, who is yet alive, has
a house of her own in the town! It's only through my having married a
French wife that has took me over here along with the Parlyvoos!"
"How strange!" exclaimed Bob. "Why, we went to see only the other day a
Mrs Craddock, who has a daughter who's very ill, that my aunt Polly
goes to see; and she told us she had a son married to a French girl and
he was living at Saint Malo!"
"Why, that's me!" cried Jacques; although "Jacques" no longer to us.
"I'm Jim Craddock, and the old lady that you saw is my mother! My word!
this is a rum start!"
After the curious coincidence of Bob and Dick being rescued by the son
of "the old egg-woman," as they always called her, between whom and
themselves Rover had in the original instance scraped an acquaintance,
nothing would content Jim Craddock but that he must bear up at once for
Portsmouth, and restore Bob and Dick to those who bewailed them as lost,
as well as return the battered little yacht, which the lugger had in tow
astern, to her proper owner.
The meeting between Bob and his parents is too sacred a matter to touch
upon here; but, it is easy enough to imagine the delight of those
welcoming one coming back to them as it were from the dead; Dick, too,
being received like another son.
As for Nellie, her joy was so great at beholding again her brother Bob,
whom she loved so dearly, that she laughed till she cried and then
fainted; while, on her recovery, she laughed and cried again, though she
did not faint a second time!
But, you should only have seen Rover when he saw his young master.
Sarah, "the good Sarah," said that she would never forget "the way in
which that there dog went on as long as she lived!"
Of course, it can be well understood that there were no ill-feelings
between Bob and the retriever anent the desertion of the latter from the
cutter on the day of the boys' terribly punished escapade; though, the
mystery of the dog's swimming ashore so strangely on that memorable
occasion, it may be mentioned here, was never cleared up!
The Captain, it must be said, behaved much more unconcernedly than
Rover.
"By Jove! I told you they'd turn up all right!" said he, chuckling away
at such a rate that he could hardly stop to get out the next words. "I
always told you so, didn't I ma'am--now, didn't I?"
"My gracious goodness, Cap'en Dresser, why you were the first to give
them up!" cried Mrs Gilmour laughing. "Sure, I never did see such a
man!"
At this the Captain chuckled still more; and he then told Dick, whom
every one was as glad almost to see amongst them again as they were to
see Bob, that he intended, when he got strong enough, to send him into
the navy so as to prevent him from going to sea again!
After a few days' rest, in order to recuperate from the effects of the
strain on all their nerves, Bob's father said they must all go back to
town, their holiday limit being at length reached.
Bob and Nellie, on this intimation, began a round of leave-taking which
would well-nigh have consumed another long holiday, to have been carried
out in accordance with their intention; for they wanted to say "good-
bye!" to all their favourite haunts and many acquaintances of the
animate and inanimate world in turn.
Yes, they must see once more the halcyon spot where they caught the
Pandalus, that gem of their aquarium; they had to bid adieu to Mrs
Craddock's cottage, and the old lady herself and daughter; and again
inspect the place where the unfortunate _Bembridge Belle_ was wrecked.
They had to give a handshake, too, to their friend Hellyer--and all his
fellow-coastguardsmen; besides having to go over the Captain's yacht,
which had been sparred and rigged anew, the little _Zephyr_ looking now
"as fresh as paint again" after her eventful vicissitudes adrift in the
Channel.
Aye, they paid farewell visits to every one and everything, and then
wanted to begin over again, it was so hard to part with them all!
At last, however, the ordeal was accomplished; and all their goods and
chattels and new acquisitions, especially the aquarium and its various
occupants, that terrible Mesembryanthemum included, being properly
packed up and labelled, behold the party one fine morning at the
railway-station on their way to London as soon as the train should
start!
Here Rover, despite his frantic howls on escaping his former prison, was
snugly incarcerated in the guard's van; when the others, after
exchanging last words with Mrs Gilmour and the Captain, entered a
saloon-carriage which had been reserved for them for the journey, Bob
and Nell, it may be taken for granted, being the last to get in, loth to
leave "aunt Polly" and "that dear old sailor" who had won their hearts,
as well as say "good-bye" to Dick, the whilom uninvited guest of their
first eventful journey "Down the line," and subsequent faithful
companion of Bob in his wonderful adventures by sea and land.