"
"What then, Admiral?"
"Oh, I have one or two little plans. I'll have some news for the boy.
Why, hang it, Walker man, I may be a bit stiff in the joints, but you'll
be my witness that I can do my twelve miles under the three hours. What
then? My eyes are as good as ever except just for the newspaper. My
head is clear. I'm three-and-sixty, but I'm as good a man as ever I
was--too good a man to lie up for another ten years. I'd be the better
for a smack of the salt water again, and a whiff of the breeze. Tut,
mother, it's not a four years' cruise this time. I'll be back every
month or two. It's no more than if I went for a visit in the country."
He was talking boisterously, and heaping his sea-boots and sextants back
into his chest.
"And you really think, my dear friend, of hoisting your pennant again?"
"My pennant, Walker? No, no. Her Majesty, God bless her, has too many
young men to need an old hulk like me. I should be plain Mr. Hay Denver,
of the merchant service. I daresay that I might find some owner who
would give me a chance as second or third officer. It will be strange
to me to feel the rails of the bridge under my fingers once more."
"Tut! tut! this will never do, this will never do, Admiral!" The Doctor
sat down by Mrs.
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