"Oh, poor p.u.s.s.y! Is she dead?"

By this time the lad was coming down the tree with p.u.s.s.y under his jacket.

"Never a dead is she, ma'am, but awfully thin."

She was indeed thin, and a miserable time she must have spent. A branch of the tree had got caught in the collar, and there the poor cat was hung up by the neck, and but for the boy, who perhaps had been birds'-nesting, she would have been slowly starved to death.

That's the worst of a dandy collar. But nothing ever happened to Tom Brandy on board the ship.

Well, in due course the _Venom_ arrived safely in port, and was paid off. And I a.s.sure you, dear children, the day I parted from Tom Brandy I was very sorry indeed. But, you see, he wasn't my master's cat, and so couldn't go with us.

Indeed Captain Beecroft had taken a real fancy for Tom, and being like many sailors, just a little superst.i.tious, he thought that if he parted with p.u.s.s.y, all his good luck would go also, so he determined to stick to him.

Arrived on sh.o.r.e, we, that is my dear master and I, went to Yorkshire to live for a time with an aunt of his, about the only relative he had alive.

Mrs Clifford was an exceedingly nice old lady, and very fond of cats, as every nice old lady is, you know, Warlock. She took quite a fancy to me at once, and I had the run of the house and gardens, and a fine old-fashioned place it was. There were several other cats here and dogs too, but we lived like a happy family just as we all do here.

"Now, p.u.s.s.y Shireen," said master to me one evening, "I don't know what I shall do. I think more and more about your beautiful mistress that the Shah is going to claim, every day of my life; and I think, too, of the vow I made to protect her from the terrible fate that awaits her.

But oh, p.u.s.s.y, I'm almost in a fix, for I must tell aunt about Beebee, and, very nice though she is, I do not know how she may take it; I am entirely dependent upon her, and what is more, I am her heir."

"But tell her I must, Shireen, even if she cuts me off with a shilling.

I still have my sword, you know, p.u.s.s.y."

I rubbed my head against his hand, and sang loud and long.

He understood me, and took me up in his arms and kissed me on the head.

"Yes, Shireen," he said, "I still have you, and we shall never part, I do a.s.sure you, unless I am slain in battle, and even then you will be by my side."

Then he started to his feet.

"Come, Shireen," he said bravely, "the more I think about it, the worse it will be. I will go and seek my aunt now in her own room, and tell her all about it."

I trotted along the pa.s.sage with him, and soon we came to Mrs Clifford's door.

"Come in," she cried. "Come in, Edgar," for she knew it was his knock.

"Sit down, my child, by my chair."

So Edgar took a low stool by her knee just as he used to do when a boy, and the kindly white-haired lady pa.s.sed her hand through his hair.

"Just like old times, isn't it, Edgar?"

"Yes, auntie; but I have come to speak to you about Shireen."

"About your beautiful p.u.s.s.y?"

"Yes. Look, auntie."

Edgar, as he spoke, took me up and exposed my gum.

"Do you see that brilliant red flashing little spot, aunt?"

"Yes, my dear boy. Let me get my gla.s.ses. Why, I declare, Edgar, it is a brilliant, a ruby, and though small, it looks like a priceless gem."

"And so it is; and the person who had it put there is a still more priceless gem to me."

"I don't understand you, Edgar; you always were a strange child."

"Well, shall I tell you the story of the ruby?"

Mrs Clifford folded her mittened hands in her lap, and looked, or tried to look resigned.

"I think," she said, "I know what is coming. You have been out in Persia, and you have fallen in love with some designing minx of a Persian girl, and she gave you that Persian cat--and--and--and--" here the old lady began to tap with her foot against the footstool--"oh, that my brother's boy should have fallen in love with a blackamoor!"

Edgar at this moment pulled out a case from his pocket, and opening it by means of touching a spring, held out before his auntie's astonished gaze a charmingly executed miniature portrait of my sweet mistress.

"Is that a blackamoor, auntie?" he said.

"This lovely child! Is this--" she spoke no more for a time.

But my master knew he had gained a point, so he commenced to tell Beebee's story and mine, from the very beginning to the end, and I a.s.sure you, children, when he finished, the tears were silently falling down the furrowed cheeks of the dear white-haired lady.

"Oh, the inhuman monster of a father of the dear girl?" she said, as if speaking to herself.

Then she turned to my master and held out her hand. "Dear boy," she said, "I am your friend, and if ever Beebee comes to this country, I will try to be a friend and a mother to her."

Then Edgar got up. He kissed the lady's white hair, then walked straight away out of the room, struggling hard to restrain the tears that filled his eyes. They were tears of joy though.

CHAPTER FOURTEEN.

ZULINA: A HOMELESS WAIF AND STRAY.

Just a few weeks after this, and while reading a letter at breakfast, my master's face flushed with joy.

There was n.o.body in the room but me, for the old lady did not come down to breakfast very early.

"Why, p.u.s.s.y Shireen, what do you think?" he cried.

Of course, I couldn't tell what the matter might be.

"My regiment--the 78th Highlanders--has been ordered to Persia, to give the Persians a drubbing for insolence to our Government, and if I am well enough I must join forthwith. Hurrah! Of course I'm well enough.

"There will be many regiments there as well as ours, but oh, Shireen!

won't it be joyful, and you must come too, p.u.s.s.y. It may seem strange for the captain of a gallant regiment to have a cat as a pet, but what care I? Many a brave soldier has loved his p.u.s.s.y, so you come along with me, and I'll chance it.

"Now," he added, "I'll just write a letter to the War Office, saying that I am well, and burning to join my regiment, then I'll go down the hill and post it before auntie is up. That will settle it."