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CHAPTER IV. DRIFTING ON THE ROCKS. On the sea-shore, not far from the spot where the brig had been wrecked, Charlie Brooke and Shank Leather walked up and down engaged in earnest conversation soon after the interviews just described. Very different was the day from that on which the wreck had taken place. It seemed almost beyond possibility that the serene sky above, and the calm, glinting ocean which rippled so softly at their feet, could be connected with the same world in which inky clouds and snowy foam and roaring billows had but a short time before held high revelry. " Well, Charlie," said his friend, after a pause, " it was very good of you, old boy, and I hope that I '11 do credit to your recommendation. The old man seems a decent sort of chap, though somewhat cross-grained." " He is kind-hearted, Shank ; I feel quite sure of that, and hope sincerely that you will get on well with him." r "'With him'?" repeated Leather; "you don't seem to understand that the situation he is to get for me is not in connection with his own business, whatever that may be. It is in some other City firm, the name of which he has not yet mentioned. I can't myself understand why he is so close !" " Perhaps because he has been born with a secretive nature," suggested Charlie. " May be so. However, that's no business of mine, and it doesn't do to be too inquisitive when a man is offering you a situation of two hundred a year. It would be like looking a gift-horse in the mouth. All I care about is that I 'm' to go to London next week and begin work. Why, you don't seem pleased to hear of my good fortune," continued Leather, turning a sharp look on his friend, who was gazing gravely at the saud, inwhich he was poking holes with his stick. "I congratulate you, Shank, with a...
