Kep patted her white podgy hand, and thanked her. "Your advice, mammy," he said, "is very excellent in its way, but it is advice of the feminine gender, and I shall go to sea, whatever happens. I shall not return home until I can do so with honour. My proud father shall never have to say that his son is unworthy of his grand old name."
"And you really will go," said Katie mournfully.
"I must, Katie, but cheer up, my dear. O'er many seas and lands I'll roam. Yet the heart of your sailor shall ever be true, and when my wanderings are over, I'll return to Merrie England and marry my Katie."
This wasn't bad for a boy of fourteen, was it?
"Well, go if you must," said the landlady, "where are you bound to?"
"Yes," said Jack, "what is your next port, sonny?"
"I shall consider. Have you a Bradshaw, Katie?"
He opened the book at random, at the place where it tells one of steamers that sail away to every part of the known world. It opened at Southampton.
He closed his eyes now fast and hard, and stuck a pin into one of the pages. It struck the West Indies.
Even Jack, old sailor though he was, was taken aback at the boy's boldness.
"I shall go there!" he said. "My dear and charming Katie," he added heroically, "Any spot on earth is a home for the brave."
That same day Keppel Drummond bade his friends of the _Blue Ensign_ goodbye.
The good landlady gave the boy her blessing. Katie gave him a bunch of ribbons and he gave Katie a kiss. He was saucy enough almost for anything.
"Goodbye, sonny," said Jack, "the world isn't so very wide, and we may meet again."
Then with his bag over his shoulder Kep bore up for the railway-station straight away, and in due time was deposited at Southampton.
The ship would sail in two days' time, so he went straight away and booked himself a second-class passage. Then set out to purchase his travelling box and kit. Kep did not mean to let the grass grow up between his toes it he could help it.
I suppose the lad really had a good share of Scottish forethought in his nature, as well as Italian frugality, and he counted his cash again, and counted all costs before he booked. The landlady at the _Blue Ensign_ on giving him back his money had refused to accept a single coin for her hospitality, and the boy had turned red when he remembered that he had at first positively taken her pretty little hostelry for a boozing ken.