ib-booms and top-gallant yards did he cost us, in that cruise off the
Cape of Good Hope? By George, it must have been a dozen, at least!"

"Not quite as bad as that, Sir Gervaise, though he did expend two
jib-booms and three top-gallant yards, for me. Captain Blewet has a fast
ship, and he wishes people to know it."

"And he has sprung his foremast and he shall see _I_ know it! Harkee,
Bunting, make the Druid's number to lie by the prize; and when that's
answered, tell him to take charge of the Frenchman, and to wait for
further orders. I'll send him to Plymouth to get a new foremast, and to
see the stranger in. By the way, does any body know the name of the
Frenchman--hey! Greenly?"

"I cannot tell you, Sir Gervaise, though some of our gentlemen think it
is the ship that was the admiral's second ahead, in our brush off Cape
Finisterre. I am not of the same opinion, however; for that vessel had a
billet-head, and this has a woman figure-head, that looks a little like
a Minerva. The French have a _la Minerve_, I think."

"Not now, Greenly, if this be she, for she is _ours_." Here Sir Gervaise
laughed heartily at his own humour, and all near him joined in, as a
matter of course. "But la Minerve has been a frigate time out of mind.
The Goddess of Wisdom has never been fool enough to get into a line of
battle when she has had it in her power to prevent it."

"_We_ thought the figure-head of the prize a Venus, as we passed her in
the Druid," Wycherly modestly observed.

"There is a way of knowing, and it shall be tried. When you've done with
the Druid, Bunting, make the prize's signal to repeat her name by
telegraph. You know how to make a prize's number, I suppose, when she
has none."

"I confess I do not, Sir Gervaise," answered Bunting, who had shown by
his manner that he was at a loss. "Having no number in our books, one
would be at a stand how to get at her, sir."

"How would _you_ do it, young man?" asked Sir Gervaise, who all this
time was hanging on to the man-rope of the poop-ladder. "Let us see how
well you've been taught, sir."

"I believe it may be done in different modes, Sir Gervaise," Wycherly
answered, without any appearance of triumph at his superior readiness,
"but the simplest I know is to hoist the French flag under the English,
by way of saying for whom the signal is intended."

"Do it, Bunting," continued Sir Gervaise, nodding his head as he
descended the ladder, "and I warrant you, Daly will