ed all your names have
been sent in on the list of those entitled to share in the prizes that
we have made here. As these have been generally laden partly with
ammunition and partly with luxuries for the use of the army, they were
for the most part valuable, and up to this time we calculate that a sum
of fifty or sixty thousand pounds will be shared."

"We quite understood, sir, that we should share with the _Tigre_ in all
that we captured. It would have been too bad if, in addition to our luck
in having an independent cruise on board the _Tigress_, we were to get
an advantage over our comrades in the way of prize-money. We have, as I
told you in my last report, received twelve thousand five hundred
pounds, the result of the sale of the thirty-two craft we sent into
Smyrna and Rhodes. It is in gold, and I thought that it would be better
for you to send off a boat for it than for me to bring it myself now.
What are we to do with the cargo, sir?"

"I must think that over, Mr. Wilkinson. You have not lost many hands, I
hope, while you were away?"

"No, sir, we have not done any very hard fighting. We had two men shot
in the attack of the pirates' hold at Astropalaia, and more than half
the crew have been wounded more or less seriously, but fortunately all
got over it."

"That is very satisfactory, Mr. Wilkinson. In giving me a full report of
your work, give a list of the casualties in each case. Some of the
people at the Admiralty seem to have an idea that the credit of any
affair depends largely on the size of the butcher's bill, whereas, in
point of fact, it should be exactly the other way, for not unfrequently
heavy loss means that measures were badly taken by the officers in
command, whereas a light one shows that the arrangements were all
excellent, and the work carried out without a hitch. I shall be glad if
you and Mr. Blagrove will dine with me. It is not very regular for you
both to leave the ship together, but there are no signs whatever of
change of wind, and one can reckon with some certainty here upon the
weather for at any rate twenty-four hours in advance. If you should see
any change before you come off, or any fall in the glass, Mr. Blagrove
must stay on board."

Wilkinson now joined his comrades, who were gathered a short distance
away waiting until he had finished his talk with Sir Sidney. "Come down
below, Wilkinson, and give us the news. We heard that you had taken some
prizes from the pirates; w