ng-sail-boom, as to appear in the rigging, on the booms, and on
the guns, to watch the result, saw the stranger safely landed on the
poop, they lifted their hats and caps, and, as one voice, greeted him
with three cheers. The officers smiled at this outbreak of feeling, and
the violation of usage was forgotten; the rigid discipline of a
man-of-war even, giving way occasionally to the sudden impulses of
natural feeling.

As the Druid approached the flag-ship, Captain Blewet had appeared in
her weather mizzen-rigging, conning his vessel in person; and the order
to luff, or keep off, had been given by his own voice, or by a gesture
of his own hand. As soon as he saw Wycherly's feet on the poop of the
Plantagenet, and his active form freed from the double-bowline, in which
it had been seated, the captain made a wide sweep of the arm, to denote
his desire to edge away; the helm of the frigate was borne up hard, and,
as the two-decker surged ahead on the bosom of a sea, the Druid's bows
were knocked off to leeward, leaving a space of about a hundred feet, or
more, between the two ships, as it might be, in an instant. The same
causes continuing to operate, the Plantagenet drove still farther ahead,
while the frigate soon came to the wind again, a cable's-length to
leeward, and abreast of the space between the admiral and his second,
astern. Here, Captain Blewet seemed disposed to wait for further orders.

Sir Gervaise Oakes was not accustomed to betray any surprise he might
feel at little events that occurred on duty. He returned the bow of
Wycherly, coolly, and then, without question or play of feature, turned
his eyes on the further movements of the Druid. Satisfied that all was
right with the frigate, he directed the messenger to follow him, and
went below himself, leaving Wycherly to obey as fast as the many
inquiries he had to answer as he descended the ladders would allow.
Atwood, an interested observer of what had passed, noted that Captain
Greenly, of all present, was the only person who seemed indifferent to
the nature of the communication the stranger might bring, though perhaps
the only one entitled by rank to put an interrogatory.

"You have come aboard of us in a novel and extraordinary mode, Sir
Wycherly Wychecombe!" observed the vice-admiral, a little severely, as
soon as he found himself in his own cabin, alone with the lieutenant.

"It was the plan of Captain Blewet, sir, and was really the only one
that se