Ned Garth Part 20

Tom gazed into Chando's face for a few seconds, then grasping his hands, he rapidly uttered a few words which Ned could not understand. The young black replied, and the next instant they were clasped in an affectionate embrace. Tom's paternal feelings a.s.sured him that he had found his long-lost boy, but a still greater surprise was in store for him. In another minute he and Chando were rushing up the hill together.

Ned and his friends followed, and were just in time to see the meeting between Tom and his wife. Though so many years had pa.s.sed away since he had parted from her, he appeared to know her immediately, and if he exhibited his feelings in a more exuberant manner than a white man might have done, they were not the less affectionate and genuine.

Ned introduced Sayd, expressing his grat.i.tude for the protection he had received. Mr Hanson and Charley at once recognised him as the young Arab who had been saved from the sinking dhow. It was necessary now to arrange what was to be done next. The two parties agreed to camp together on the knoll, and resolved to proceed to the coast by the route Mr Hanson and his people had followed, thus avoiding the savage warriors who had just been defeated, and who would undoubtedly seek for an opportunity of revenging themselves. An important point, however, had to be settled. Would Tom return with his son to Kamwawi, or would they accompany the English back to the coast?

"Me lub him wife, him son too; but him lub Ma.s.sa Pack, an' Baraka's heart break if he not say good-bye. And Missie Sally an' Missie Mary!

Oh! what shall him do, what shall him do?"

Tom had some difficulty, it appeared, in persuading his wife and Chando to proceed to the coast, but the descriptions he gave of the wonders they would see overcame their objections. Still, Chando expressed the not unreasonable fear that he might be seized by Abdullah and carried off again into slavery, and very nearly turned the scale the other way.

Mr Hanson, however, through Sayd, promised him protection, and his mother's fears on that score were quieted.

The two parties now united forming a strong body, marched through the country without opposition, except from the natural difficulties which presented themselves.

The "Hope" was found at anchor in the harbour, where Lieutenant Pack had promised to wait for the expedition, having returned there the previous day.

His joy at recovering his nephew may be supposed. Sayd, who had expected to be obliged to carry his ivory to Zanzibar, was delighted to find that Mr Pack was ready to purchase the whole of it at a far higher price than he could have expected to have obtained at that market.

Leaving his people encamped under the command of Sambroko and Ha.s.san, he accepted an invitation to return on board the "Hope" to Zanzibar to purchase fresh stores for another expedition, and he promised Ned that he would not only never again have anything to do with slave-trading, but, after the experience he had gained, would keep aloof from all those who engaged in that barbarous traffic. Tom Baraka, his wife, and Chando also came on board, Tom having inspired Masika with a curiosity to see the wonders of the island, as Zanzibar is called. The great desire of his heart was accomplished. From the commencement of the journey he had instructed her in that faith which had afforded him support and comfort during his long exile from the home he had expected never again to see.

Though she did not at first understand all Tom said, her mind, as well as that of her son, became gradually enlightened, and he had the happiness of seeing them both baptised before they left Zanzibar under the escort of Sayd, who undertook to protect them and to restore them safely to their native village. It cost Tom, however, much to part from his old master and Ned, though he was reconciled to the separation by the belief which they had taken care to instil into him, that he might prove an unspeakable blessing to his countrymen by imparting to them the truths of the Gospel and instructing them in the arts of civilisation.

He and Sayd were the last persons to quit the "Hope," as, with a full cargo of ivory and other African produce, she sailed for England.

Though the voyage was long, Ned had scarcely finished the account of his adventures when the schooner reached the Thames, and the two lieutenants, richer men than they had ever before been in their lives, accompanied by Ned and Charley, set off to report to Mr Farrance the success of their undertaking. On reaching the house they were greatly surprised at hearing that he, with his brother, had a few days before started for Triton Cottage.

On this Lieutenant Pack, bidding farewell to Mr Hanson, accompanied by Ned and Charley, immediately set off for home. As they approached, Ned, looking out of the carriage window, saw a young lady leaning on the arm of a gentleman who bore a strong resemblance to Mr Farrance. It needed not a second glance to convince him that the young lady, though much taller than the Mary he remembered, was Mary herself, and calling the post-boy to stop, in a moment he was out of the chaise and running towards them.

"It is--it is Ned!" cried Mary, and forgetting her advanced age, and many other things besides, she threw her arms round his neck and burst into tears; but as she looked up directly afterwards and saw Lieutenant Pack coming stumping eagerly towards them, the bright smile which overspread her countenance showed that they were tears of joy. The lieutenant took her in his arms and kissed her cheek again and again.

"How is sister Sally--all right I hope?"

"She is at home with Uncle Farrance; and here is my papa," she added, pointing to a gentleman standing near her.

"Your papa, Mary?" exclaimed the lieutenant putting out his hand. "I am happy to see you, sir, whatever claim you have to that relationship, although you shall not carry off our Mary if I can help it."

The gentleman smiled faintly. "You certainly, sir, have a superior, if not a prior claim, from all the loving-kindness which you and your sister have shown her, and I should indeed be ungrateful were I to act contrary to your wishes," answered the stranger.

"Well, well, come along, we will settle that by-and-by," said the lieutenant, as he walked hurriedly on. "I want to see my good sister Sally and a.s.sure her that I am as sound in health and limb as when I went away." He had let go Mary's hand, and she and Ned now followed, Charley having got out some time before to take a shorter cut to the coast-guard station, where he expected to find his father.

Miss Sally did not go into hysterics, as Mary had so nearly done, on seeing the lieutenant and her nephew, but received them both as her affectionate nature prompted, though as she looked up into Ned's face she declared that, had not he come back with his uncle, she would have had some doubts as to his ident.i.ty.

Mr Farrance now came forward and more formally introduced his brother, a.s.suring the lieutenant of the proofs he had obtained to his entire satisfaction that he was Mary's father, "though," he added, as he took him aside, "I fear, from the trials and sufferings he has endured, his days on earth are destined to be few."

This, indeed, when the lieutenant had an opportunity of observing the elder Mr Farrance, he thought likely to be the case. The lieutenant and Ned were too much engaged--the one in describing his voyage, and the other his adventures in Africa--to inquire after any of their neighbours, though it was very evident that Miss Sally had a matter of importance which she wished to communicate.

"Come, Sally, what is it?" exclaimed the lieutenant. "Has Mrs Jones got twins? or is Miss Simpkins married? or is poor old Shank dead and not left enough to bury him, as I always said would be the case?"

"Hush, hush," said Miss Sally, looking towards Mary and her father, who, with Ned, were seated at the window. "It is about Mr Shank I wish to tell you. The old man is dead, and it was partly about his affairs that Mr Farrance came down here, or they would have sent for Mary and me to London. It is a very extraordinary story. He was once a miser, and although suffering apparently from poverty, had no less than thirty thousand pounds, which he has left to our dear Mary. He did so before he knew he was her grandfather, which he turns out without doubt to have been. His only daughter married Mr Farrance, and was lost in the Indian seas on board the ship from which you saved Mary and Tom. Mary was with the old man until his death, and was a great comfort to him, but she had not the slightest suspicion that he intended to leave her a sixpence. From what our friend Mr Thorpe had said, however, I was not so much surprised as I might otherwise have been. Mary had so interested him in the sufferings of the Africans, caused by the slave trade, that he left a note expressing his hope that she would employ such means as she might have at her disposal to better their condition, especially by the establishment of missions, which he expressed his belief would prove the best way for accomplishing that end."

No one would have supposed from Mary's manner that she had suddenly become an heiress. Indeed no one was more astonished than Ned when he heard the account Miss Sally had given his uncle. It seemed, indeed, to afford him much less satisfaction than might have been supposed. Her wealth, however, was not increased by her father's death, which occurred a short time afterwards.

Several years pa.s.sed away; by that time Africa had been explored by the many energetic travellers who have so greatly benefited its people by acting as pioneers to the missionaries who have since gone forth to carry to them the blessings of the Gospel.

Mary had to wait until she was of age before she inherited her grandfather's property, when she became the wife of honest Ned Garth, then a commander, and who, greatly to his surprise, found that Mr Farrance had settled on him a sum equal to her fortune.

Mary did not forget Mr Shank's wishes, nor did Ned the scenes he had witnessed in Africa, both ever showing a warm interest in its dark-skinned races by contributing liberally towards the support of every enterprise for their benefit.

THE END.