This remark pleased the nautical expert very much; but if Uncle Moses had been on the train, and could have prevented it, he would not have permitted his ward to make such a promise. The captain said no more about that matter, but his head was very full of business. “I suppose you are tired out, Louis; but there is a good deal to be done even before morning. I am not quite satisfied to leave Scoble to himself till we are ready to ‘go for him’ in the Guardian-Mother,” said he, beginning to state his proposed arrangements. “I cannot go down to Dolphin Bay, if there is any such bay, or to the coast of Jersey, for I have to attend to the purchase of the steamer, and the fitting of her out to-morrow. I know where I can find a small steamer commanded by a man I have assisted to purchase her, and I am going to send you down with him to be on the watch for the Maud. You can sleep all you want to as soon as you get on board of her.” Captain Ringgold proceeded to detail his plans. While he was doing so he happened to look across the aisle of the car, and discovered there, somewhat to his astonishment, Bickling, the cook of the Maud. He had gone with them by the train to Von Blonk Park; but in the excitement of the hour both Louis and the captain had forgotten all about him. He was busily engaged in conversation with a man in the seat with him, to whom the cook seemed to be telling some sort of a story. The man with whom Bickling was talking was apparently about forty years old, with nothing particularly noticeable about him. As the cook had never been in this part of the country, it was hardly probable that he had ever met him before. The couple seemed to be very intimate for so short an acquaintance. On the ferry-boat Bickling approached Louis, and very politely and deferentially saluted him. “I have been so busy that I forgot all about you, Bickling,” said Louis. “Which I got out of the railway carriage when you did, sir; and I waited a long time for this train, sir,” added the cook. “Who is the man with you?” asked Louis in a low tone. “Which his name it is Flounder, sir; and I never saw him before to-night in all my life, sir; but he is a Hinglishman, sir, and we made friends at once, sir; for a Hinglishman is a Hinglishman all over the world, sir,” replied Bickling. “You were telling him a long story on the train.” “Which I told him about my little cruise in the Maud; ’ow the lady and ’er son ’ad been kidnapped, sir, and he was very sorry indeed, sir, for you, for he knew Captain Scoble when he lived ’ere; and he wished ’e could ’elp you get back the lady.” “I am very much obliged to him,” replied Louis, who had already decided to take the cook with him, believing he might be serviceable to him on account of his knowledge of the vessel. “I am going down to the Jersey coast in a steamer; if you are willing, I should like to have you go with me, and I will pay you wages.”