in-chief will be least in danger of failing, if Admiral
Bluewater lead on this occasion, instead of Admiral Oakes?"

"Merely because I think Admiral Oakes, when an enemy is pressing him, is
more apt to take counsel of his heart than of his head; while Admiral
Bluewater is _not_. You do not know yourself, Sir Jarvy, if you think it
so easy a matter to run away."

"I've spoiled you, Dick, by praising your foolish man[oe]uvring so much
before your face, and that's the whole truth of the matter. No--my mind
is made up; and, I believe you know me well enough to feel sure, when
that is the case, even a council of war could not move it. _I_ lead out,
in the _first_ two-decked ship that lifts her anchor, and _you_ follow
in the _last_. You understand my plan, and will see it executed, as you
see every thing executed, in face of the enemy."

Admiral Bluewater smiled, and not altogether without irony in his
manner; though he managed, at the same time, to get the leg that had
been lowest for the last five minutes, raised by an ingenuity peculiar
to himself, several inches above its fellow.

"Nature never made you for a conspirator, Oakes," he said, as soon as
this change was effected to his mind; "for you carry a top-light in your
breast that even the blind can see!"

"What crotchet is uppermost in your mind, now, Dick? Ar'n't the orders
plain enough to suit you?"

"I confess it;--as well as the motive for giving them just in this
form."

"Let's have it, at once. I prefer a full broadside to your minute-guns.
What is my motive?"

"Simply that you, Sir Jarvy, say to a certain Sir Gervaise Oakes, Bart.,
Vice-Admiral of the Red, and Member for Bowldero, in your own mind,
'now, if I can just leave that fellow, Dick Bluewater, behind me, with
four or five ships, he'll never desert _me_, when in front of the enemy,
whatever he might do with _King George_; and so I'll make sure of him by
placing the question in such a light that it shall be one of friendship,
rather than one of loyalty.'"

Sir Gervaise coloured to the temples, for the other had penetrated into
his most secret thoughts; and, yet, spite of his momentary vexation, he
faced his accuser, and both laughed in the heartfelt manner that the
circumstance would be likely to excite.

"Harkee, Dick," said the vice-admiral, as soon as he could command
sufficient gravity to speak; "they made a mistake when they sent you to
sea; you ought to have been apprenticed to a conjur