Page:Works of Jules Verne - Parke - Vol 2.djvu/253

 towards him, and as he got nearer, saw it was a little stout man, with a bright jovial face and kindly eye, who came up, and seizing both his hands, shook them so heartily in his own, in such an impulsive, familiar, free-and-easy style, that a Frenchman would have said he came from the sunny south.

But though the new comer was not a Southerner, he made a narrow escape of it, for he was full of talk and gesticulation, and seemed as if he would explode unless he came out with all he thought. His small intellectual eyes and large mobile mouth were safety-valves to let out the steam, and he talked and talked so incessantly that Shandon was fairly overpowered. He made a shrewd guess, however, who this voluble little man was, and, taking advantage of a momentary pause, managed to say, "Doctor Clawbonny, I presume?"

"Himself in person, my good sir. Here I have been seeking you for a whole quarter of an hour, and asking everybody for you everywhere. Only imagine my impatience! Five minutes more, and I should have lost my wits. It is really then Richard Shandon I see. You actually exist? you're not a myth? Your hand, your hand, that I may grasp it in mine. Yes, it is a genuine flesh and blood hand, and there is a veritable Richard Shandon. Well, come, if there's a chief officer, there must be a brig called the Forward that he commands; and if he commands she is going to sail, and if she's going to sail she will take Dr. Clawbonny on board."

"Yes, Doctor, surely. There is a brig called the Forward, and she is going to sail, and I am Richard Shandon."

"That's logic," said the Doctor, drawing a long breath, "that's logic, and I am overjoyed to hear it, for now I have reached the summit of my ambition. I have waited long, and wished to go a voyage; and now with you to command"

"Allow me," interrupted Shandon.

But Clawbonny took no notice, and went on, "With you; we are sure of pushing onward, and never yielding an inch of our ground."

"But, sir," began Shandon again.

"You are a tried man, sir; you have seen service. You have a right to be proud."