y consider it probable
that she will fetch, which, I should say, if she were sold at Gibraltar,
would not be over eight or nine hundred pounds. You, Mr. Blagrove, can
buy her in the name of your father, and I will take your bill at three
months upon him. Then there is the question of the crew. As to the
officers, I can send you home, Mr. Wilkinson, with despatches. I have
not had an opportunity of forwarding any for some weeks now; and to you,
Mr. Blagrove, I can give three months' leave on urgent private business.
As to men, we have small craft coming over here constantly from Sicily
with fruit and fresh provisions, and I have no doubt that, with the
offer of good wages, you would be able to pick up ten or twelve men
without much difficulty.

"On board our ships there are, I should say, at least twenty men who
have been invalided by boards of doctors as being unfit for service,
either from the effects of wounds or climate, and this would be a good
opportunity for sending them home. Many of them are still fit for easy
work, and would, at any rate, counterbalance your Italian crew. Of
course I should formally take a passage for them in Mr. Blagrove's ship.
The prize mounts six guns, but I would advise you to keep well out of
the way of French privateers. Of course the final result of the sale of
the merchandise would have to be paid by your father, Mr. Blagrove, into
the prize court for division among those entitled to it.

"With the ship, as your father's property, the case is different; that
is his private venture. He will, of course, charge freight on the
merchandise, and he will get two or three pounds a head for taking the
invalids home. As he will certainly get double the price the brig would
fetch at Gibraltar, that and the freight would a good deal more than
clear all expenses, and he will of course have the usual prize-agent's
commission on the sales he effects. What do you think of that plan?"

Both the midshipmen were highly pleased with the proposal, and thanked
their commander very heartily for his kindness. A board of officers
assembled on the following day and assessed the value of the French brig
at L850, and Edgar formally bought her in his father's name for that
sum, and drew a bill upon him for payment in three months.

He had several times heard from him since he had entered on board the
_Tigre_, and in the first letter Mr. Blagrove gave a hearty approval of
the course that he had adopted, and said