other wounded men.

All were proud of their achievement as they sailed up Plymouth Sound
with their prize in tow, but no one felt prouder than Jack Peek.

"I knew Captain would do something as soon as he had the chance," he had
remarked to Brown, who greatly shared his feelings.

Rayner was at once removed to the hospital. As he was unable to hold a
pen, Captain Saltwell wrote the despatches, taking care to give due
credit to the active commander of the corvette.

A short time afterwards Oliver carried to the hospital--to which he had
never failed to pay a daily visit--an official-looking letter.

"Ah! that will do him more good than my doctoring," said the surgeon, to
whom he showed it.

Oliver opened it at Rayner's request. It was from the Lords of the
Admiralty, confirming him in his rank, and appointing him to command the
_Urania_ (the English name given to the prize), which, being a fine new
corvette, a hundred tons larger than the _Lily_, had been bought into
the service.

"It will take some time to refit her, and you will, I hope, be about
again before she is ready for sea," said Oliver. "I have brought a
message from my mother, who begs, as soon as you are ready to be
removed, that you will come and stay at our house. She is a good nurse,
and you will enjoy more country air than you can here."

Rayner very gladly accepted the invitation. Neither Oliver nor Mrs
Crofton had thought about the result, but before many weeks were over
Commander William Rayner was engaged to marry Mary Crofton, who had
given him as loving and gentle a heart as ever beat in woman's bosom.
He told her how often he had talked about her when away at sea, and how
often he had thought of her, although he had scarcely dared to hope that
she would marry one who had been a London street boy and powder monkey.

"I love you, my dear Bill, for what you are, for being noble, true, and
brave, and such you were when you were a powder monkey, as you call it,
although you might not have discovered those qualities in yourself."

He was now well able to marry, for his agents had in their hands several
thousand pounds of prize-money, and he might reasonably hope to obtain
much more before the war was over.

Our hero was well enough to assume the command of the _Urania_ by the
time she was ready for sea. Oliver, as his first lieutenant, had been
busily engaged in obtaining hands, and had secured many of the _Lily's_
former crew. The com