say you have been staring at that bit of paper ever since—a sort of deputy-me, eh?"
"It was the first we heard," said the mother simply; and a subtle something brought back her tears. "I half think I'll frame it!" she added, smiling at her own weakness.
"I found out your other signallings," said Maurice. "I was in Bone's office half-a-dozen times yesterday."
Dick continued his survey of the room.
"Well, I think I recognise everything," he said presently; "but, I say, Fanny, I've got a thing or two for you to arrange in your high-art fashion; some odds and ends you haven't seen the like of before, I expect."
"No!" said Fanny.
"Oh, but I have, though; and some of 'em expressly for you."
"No!—really?—then what?"
[Pg 33] "Aha, you'll see," said Dick. "Maurice, we'll unpack them now—if that brute of a Customs functionary has left a whole thing in the box." And the two left the room.
[Pg 33]
"To think," said Fanny musingly, "that our Dick is back! Really back, and never going out again; and been through all kinds of fearful adventures; and sailed round the world, and been away four years and a half—one can scarcely realise any of it. But above all, to think that he has made his fortune!"
Mrs. Edmonstone started.
"Oh, Fanny," cried she, "I had forgotten that! He never once spoke of it, and I didn't think of it. Oh, my boy, my boy!" She burst fairly into sobs. Her joy had been too great to bear before she was reminded of this overwhelming fact; it had brought the tears again and again to her eyes; now it became akin to pain.
Yet she did nothing but smile after her sons returned, laden with treasures and curios which they laid out all over the room. There was a famous rug of Tasmanian opossum skins, a dozen emu eggs, the tail of a lyre-bird, the skin of an immense carpet-snake, a deadly collection of boomerangs and spears, and a necklace of quandong stones mounted with silver. Mrs. Edmonstone beheld in silent wonder. As for Fanny, she was in ecstasies ("It is as good as the Exhibition," she said). So the time slipped away, and before half the quaint things had been
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