The Captain gave the gray-haired man a sinister look as he left the room, then muttered to himself:  “Prepared!  As if such a piece of news could have much effect on a healthy child.  If it would only frighten him to death.—­Well, there’d be no great damage done.  Then I’d have his inheritance—­which is really not a trifling sum—­instead of being merely the administrator, and my creditors would not be driving me almost out of my senses.  If his father had only given me a lump sum of at least ten thousand pounds, as I begged him to do before he died!—­Our ship will be confiscated in Melbourne.  The ‘St. George’ does not belong to me but to my nephew, my ward.—­Oh, if I only knew how to get myself out of this predicament!  One fortunate thing has happened since the death of my brother.  I have managed to get all the books and accounts out of the way, and perhaps things will go better, if I once get the boy in my power.”  These were the thoughts which occupied the mind of John Brown, as, with downcast eyes and sullen mien, he paced up and down the reception-room.

John Brown was the younger brother of George Brown, Willy’s father.  Both men had received from their parents, in Dublin, a large amount of money, but they had not managed it equally well.  George, choosing to go to sea had invested his in a merchantman, and in a short time through prosperous voyages to the Indian and Chinese Seas doubled his capital.  In Hongkong he married a Catholic maiden, who unfortunately died, leaving a child, Willy, now barely eight years old.  In accordance with her last wish this child was taken to the Missionary College of the Holy Saviour to be educated.  Here the father had frequent opportunities of seeing him, as his trading expeditions often took him to Hongkong.  The reports of the child’s progress and behavior were always good, and he seemed so happy and contented that the father questioned the advisability of taking him to a larger European institution, especially as Willy begged to remain where he was.  Oftentimes the Captain took his little son with him on short trips to the neighboring ports of Canton and Malacca; and for one of these Willy was now hoping, as his father was just returning from a voyage to Ireland.  But instead of the father, there came the uncle, whom he had never seen, and of whose existence he did not even know, bringing the sad news of the death of George Brown.

John Brown was a man of an altogether different stamp, and had lived an altogether different life.  Possessed of a passion for drinking and gambling he had indulged in riotous living until he made an end of his patrimony, then appealed to his brother to pay his debts.  In order to save the family name from disgrace George furnished him money, but the appeals for more were so constant that he was obliged to give no heed to them or else ruin himself.  On the occasion of his last visit to Dublin he found his brother in trouble, and, to escape the charges preferred against him in the criminal courts, took him with him on what proved to be his last voyage.  Captain Brown died a few days out from Hongkong and was buried at sea.