There was a dramatic silence; and then Gran'pa suddenly thrust Nanny gently aside, strode out into the hall, and took his beloved in his arms. I caught sight of her face through the chink in the door. It was raised to his, and if ever a man read a message in a woman's eyes, Gran'pa did at that divine moment of ecstasy. "After half a century!" I thought. "America and England. . . . Hands across the sea! . . . Love is deathless, indeed . . . !" CHAPTER XI THE GORILLA COUNTRY Sally Rebecca having at last surrendered, Gran'pa became his usual energetic self again, and in no more than three days after that touching scene in the hall we were ready to set sail for Africa. The name of the ship which we had chartered was "The Pilgrim Father." This, together with the cargo of eighty-seven aged optimists, gazing pensively over the vessel's side as it steamed out of Plymouth Sound, must have made the watching townspeople imagine that we were in the moving picture trade. They may even have thought that, presently, we should commence some sort of "stunt." We managed, however, to get nearly half-a-dozen miles away from land before anything exciting happened. The trouble commenced in bunk 64, which was occupied by an ancient and retired stockbroker, known as William Garton. On boarding the vessel he had immediately gone below, suffering from the quaint delusion that the best preventive of sea-sickness was to commence a voyage deep in slumber. In this way, he argued, one became unconsciously acclimatized to the motion, and when one at last awoke the danger was passed. It certainly wasn't in this particular case; for he awoke with a start (possibly from the throes of some evil nightmare), sprang out of his bunk and came tearing up on deck, clad only in pajamas and nightcap. "Stop the ship!" he cried wildly. "Stop it at once!" Fortunately, Gran'pa was near and was able to deal with the matter before a panic ensued. "What's happened now?" he asked, with a murderous look in his eyes. "I've changed my mind! I want to go back!" "Don't be absurd!" William Garton drew himself up to the full extent of his five-feet-four (or thereabouts). "Will you kindly put me ashore, sir?" "Certainly not!" exclaimed Gran'pa. "You've signed on for this voyage--and you're coming." "This . . . this . . ." he stormed, . . . "is abduction--forcible abduction!" "Nothing of the sort! You may have changed your mind, but that's no reason why I should change the course of this boat. Run back to bed like a sensible fellow, before you catch cold." "If you don't stop this infernal ship and turn round I'll . . . jump overboard." He dashed to the rail and commenced mounting it--apparently with every intention of fulfilling his threat. But Gran'pa was too quick for him. He sprang forward, gripped the little man by the pajama jacket, and hauled him back to safety again.