Jeff Benson, or the Young Coastguardsman

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Robert Michael Ballantyne. Jeff Benson, or the Young Coastguardsman

Chapter One. Our Hero Introduced with some of his Friends

Chapter Two. A Sea-Captain Relates his Adventures, and Refuses to Draw Morals

Chapter Three. Our Coastguardsman Meets with a Serious but very Common Fall

Chapter Four. A Wreck and Rescue

Chapter Five. Miss Millet Receives a Surprise, Rosebud a Disappointment, and our Hero Another Blow

Chapter Six. Good News to the Captain—Also to Jeff

Chapter Seven. An Unquiet, Adventurous Morning in the Shell-Cave

Chapter Eight. Conclusion of the Whole Matter

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Captain Richard Millet, like his sister, was rather eccentric. Unlike her, however, he was large, broad, and powerful. It would have taken considerably more than “half a gale” to blow him away. Even a gale and a half might have failed to do that.

“Glad to meet you,” he said, extending his solid-looking hand with a frank, hearty air, on being introduced to Jeff. “My sister Molly has often spoken of you. Sorry to hear you’ve left the sea. Great mistake, young man—great mistake. There’s no school like the sea for teaching a man his dependence on his Maker.”

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“She was all that and a great deal more,” said the enthusiastic father. “It don’t become me to have much of an opinion about the angels, but I wouldn’t give my Rosebud for the whole lot o’ them, an’ all the cherubs throw’d into the bargain. Well, as I was sayin’, I ran down to Folkestone to the school where she is, and as we were partin’ she made me promise when I got to Hong-Kong to run up the river to see an old schoolmate o’ hers that had gone out there with her father. I was to give Clara Rosebud’s dear love, and her photograph, and get hers in exchange. I would have done this, of course, for my darlin’, anyhow, but I promised all the more readily because I had some business to do with old Nibsworth, the father.

“Well, after I’d got to Hong-Kong an’ seen the ship all snug, I thought of runnin’ up the river in a small steamer that was ready to start. It so happened that I got a letter that very day from Nibsworth himself, who had heard of my arrival, askin’ me to come without delay, as there was a grand chance of doin’ a bit of business that might turn in some thousands of pounds. But it would have to be settled next day, or the chance would be lost. You may be sure I didn’t waste time after readin’ this, but when I got to the river-side, I found that the steamer had started, and there wasn’t another till next mornin’.”

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