“Lazy dog!” exclaimed his friend; “I’ll soon stir him up.” And after giving orders for the yacht to put to sea, he went below. As he entered the saloon, Mr. Whyte Whymper, who was lying on a lounge, threw down the semi-monthly Reykjavik paper, which, as it was wholly printed in Icelandic, he had been trying in vain to read, and exclaimed, “Awfully glad you’ve come back, old fellow! Haven’t had a thing to do since you left except read this stoopid paper. Went ashore once, but got mixed up in a beastly row, and haven’t been off the ship since. Awfully glad, ’pon honor. What sort of a trip have you had? and how did our young Yankee friend enjoy it?” “What sort of a row did you get into?” inquired Lord Seabright, without answering these questions, and gazing suspiciously at the bandages with which his friend’s head and hands were swathed. “Was it in connection with a fire?” “Well, yes,” admitted the other, hesitatingly, “it was a sort of a fire, and some children were left in rather an uncomfortable position, because the beggars outside were too stoopid to know what to do.” “And you showed them?” “Yes, I put them up to a wrinkle that I thought might be useful to them at some future time.” “Whyte, you are a splendid fellow!” exclaimed Lord Seabright, enthusiastically. “You saved those children’s lives at the risk of your own, and then hurried away to avoid being thanked for it. After this I’d like to hear anybody call you lazy and selfish again!” With this he stepped forward to grasp his friend’s hand. “Keep back! No demonstrations! Hands off!” cried the other, apprehensively drawing back his bandaged members. “My flippers are still a little tender.” And no wonder; for the poor brave hands were so terribly burned that they would be scarred and disfigured for life. “I tell you, it made me feel more than ever proud of being an Englishman,” said Lord Seabright, in talking of the affair to Breeze, “to see the pluck with which that fellow concealed his sufferings, and made light of them.” This incident taught Breeze that appearances are often very deceitful, and first impressions are apt to be unjust ones; also, that some of the noblest natures are only developed by extraordinary circumstances.