This is what I found." "Where's Brown ?" Quest asked quickly.
"I rang down for the chief steward," the Captain continued, "and ordered Brown to be sent up at once.

The chief steward came himself instead.

It seems Brown went off without his wages but with a huge parcel of bedding, on the first barge this morning, before any one was about." Quest groaned as he turned away.
"Captain," he declared, "I am ashamed.

He has been here all the time and we've let him slip through our fingers.

Girls," he went on briskly, turning towards Laura, who had just come up, "India's off.