“Very well, my friend,” said Louis, laughing at the close fit of the name to the head. “Which you will not think I am impolite if I call you Baldy?” “’Ow could a gentleman like you be impolite, sir? Which you can call me as it suits your fancy, Mr. Belgrave.” As he had nothing else to do, Louis questioned his companion in regard to his previous history. He had been a servant till he was thirty-five, which explained his obsequious manners, and his slavish submission to those in authority, and to well-dressed people in general. He had worked about the kitchens of gentlemen and clubs till he had learned to cook. He had made two voyages as cook, and had gone to Baltimore in that capacity on board of a steamer. He had worked in a restaurant there a year; but he could not get the “’ang of Hamerican ways,” and wished to get back to England. For this reason he had shipped as cook with Scoble. He had no money, for he had been too simple to make a good bargain with his late employer, and had worked for next to nothing. [Illustration: “THERE IS A STEAMER HEADED THIS WAY, AND IT MAY BE THE GUARDIAN-MOTHER.” Page 241.] “I intend to go to Bermuda in the Guardian-Mother, Baldy,” said Louis. “The Guardian-Mother, sir!” exclaimed the cook. “And who is she, if you please, sir? Which I never ’eard of ’er before, sir.” “That is the name of my steam-yacht.” “Which it is a very hodd name, sir.” “It is the name by which I think of my mother, the lady who is a prisoner on board of the Maud.” “Then I takes hoff my ’at to the Guardian-Mother,” added Bickling, suiting the action to the words. “But she is going to Bermuda in pursuit of the Maud; and perhaps you do not wish to go there, Baldy.” “Which I should be very ’appy to go there, sir, if I can go with you, sir.” “I shall go to England sooner or later in the Guardian-Mother, though I shall probably spend the coming winter in the West Indies, and it may be a year or more before the steamer goes to Europe.” “Which it is all the same to me, sir. You ’ave been very good to me, sir, better as any other man now on the earth, sir. I should be ’appy to follow you all over the world, sir, wherever you go, never axing no questions, sir. I am not good for much, and I am the biggest coward as lives on the face of the footstool, sir,” replied the cook in a rather more fawning tone and manner than usual. “Not quite so bad as that, Baldy. You had pluck enough to refuse to go on board of the Maud when Flounder tried to make you do so,” suggested Louis. “Which he wanted me to be faithless to you, sir, and I was too big a coward to do that,” answered the cook, with an extended grin. “But he would ’ave murdered me if you had not been near.” “All right, Baldy; you behaved very well, and I shall try to find a place for you on board of the Guardian-Mother,” replied Louis, who felt that he was under obligations to his companion for his fidelity.