"That would be delightful!" Carrie exclaimed, enthusiastically. "Do you really mean that, uncle?" "That is really what I do mean, niece. It seems to me that that is the very best thing we could do with the young scamp." "It would be capital!" Carrie went on. "It is what I should like above everything." "A nicer arrangement couldn't be, Mr. Bale. It will suit us all. Bob will learn the language, he will be a companion to Carrie when I am on duty, and we will make a man of him. But he won't be able to go out with us, I am afraid. Officers' wives and families get their passages in the transports, but I am afraid it would be no use to ask for one for Bob. Besides, we sail in four days." "No, I will arrange about his passage, and so on. "Well, I am glad that my proposal suits you both. The matter has been worrying me for the last three months, and it is a comfort that it is off my mind. "I will go back to my hotel now. I will send Bob round in the morning, and you can tell him about it." Chapter 4: Preparations For A Voyage. Bob went round to the barracks at half past nine. "Uncle says you have a piece of news to tell me, Carrie." "My dear Bob," Captain O'Halloran said, "your uncle is a broth of a boy. He would do credit to Galway; and if anyone says anything to the contrary, I will have him out tomorrow morning." "What has he been doing?" Bob asked. "I told you, Carrie, yesterday, he wasn't a bit like what he seemed." "Well, Bob, you are not going to stay at his place of business any longer." "No! Where is he going to send me--to school again? I am not sure I should like that, Carrie. I didn't want to leave, but I don't think I should like to go back to Caesar, and Euclid, and all those wretched old books again." "Well, you are not going, Bob." "Hurry up, Carrie!" her husband said. "Don't you see that you are keeping the boy on thorns? Tell him the news, without beating about the bush." "Well, it is just this, Bob. You are to come out for two years to live with us, at Gibraltar, and learn Spanish." Bob threw his cap up to the ceiling, with a shout of delight; executed a wild dance, rushed at his sister and kissed her violently, and shook hands with her husband. "That is glorious!" he said, when he had sufficiently recovered himself for speech. "I said uncle was a brick, didn't I? But I never dreamt of such a thing as this." "He is going to pay, very handsomely, while you are with us, Bob, so it will be really a great help to us. Besides, we will like to have you with us. But you will have to work hard at Spanish, you know." "Oh, I will work hard," Bob said, confidently. "And be very steady," Captain O'Halloran said, gravely. "Of course," Bob replied. "But who are you going to hire to teach me that?" "You are an impudent boy, Bob," his sister said, while Captain O'Halloran burst out laughing.