"You will decide to take me, Harry," the lad said confidently, and then
added with a laugh: "the fact that you should have adopted a plan like
this is quite sufficient to show that you want somebody to look after
you."

Harry Prendergast did not get much sleep that night He blamed himself for
having mentioned the matter at all to Bertie, and yet the more he thought
over it the more he felt that it would be very pleasant to have his
brother with him. The lad was full of fun and mischief, but he knew that
he had plenty of sound sense, and would be a capital companion, and the
fact that he had been three years at sea, and was accustomed to turn his
hand to anything, was all in his favour. If nothing came of it he would
only have lost a couple of years, and, as the boy himself had said, the
time would not have been altogether wasted. Bertie was down before him in
the morning. He looked anxiously at his brother as he came in.

"Well, Harry?"

"Well, I have thought it over in every light. But in the first place,
Bertie, if you go with me you will have to remember that I am your
commanding officer. I am ten years older than you, and besides I am a
lieutenant in the King's Navy, while you are only a midshipman in the
merchant service. Now, I shall expect as ready obedience from you as if I
were captain of my own ship and you one of my men; that is absolutely
essential."

"Of course, Harry, it could not be otherwise."

"Very well, then; in the next place I shall abide by what Mr. Barnett
says. He is your guardian as well as trustee, and has a perfect right to