e wind will most
probably have headed us, and we'll then have to go about and bear away
to the nor'ard on the port tack, losing all the southing we've made
since yesterday!"

In spite of both their growls, however, we could not well avoid the
interview, albeit it was none of our seeking; and while I went down to
summons the captain, Commander Nesbitt ordered the courses to be clewed
up and the mainyard squared, so as to heave the ship to.

When I came up again the Frenchman and ourselves had both our heads to
windward and were bobbing about abreast of each other, though still some
distance apart; dipping deeply in the rough seaway and occasionally
rolling broadside on, with the salt spray and spindrift coming in over
our hammock nettings in sprinkles of foam.

"Hullo!" cried Larkyns, who was signal midshipman and was looking at the
stranger with a diminutive telescope screwed-up to his starboard eye.
"She's hoisted the answering pen'ant under her ensign."

"That means she's going to use the International Code," said the
commander, overhearing him. "Signalman, keep a sharp lookout on her,
and have your book handy to read her signal as soon as it goes up!"

"Ay, ay, sir," replied the man, who was, like Larkyns, squinting his
best at the other ship, although with a much bigger glass. "Something's
going up now, sir."

"Yes, I see," said Commander Nesbitt, as a string of flags were run up
to the French ship's main. "Have our answering pen'ant ready to hoist
as soon as you can make it out. Look sharp, signalman! What does she
say?"

"It's `B D N,' sir," stammered out the man, who was rapidly turning over
the pages of the signal book, seeking the meaning of the flags in that
dictionary of the sign language of the sea, and missing what he sought
to find in his hurry. "I--I--can't find it, sir."

"Can't find your grandmother!" cried the Commander, impatiently, vexed
at the delay. "Here, give me the signal book!"

"The hoist means `I want to communicate,' I think," observed Captain
Farmer, who had come up quietly on the poop meanwhile, and stood behind
the commander. "But the Frenchman might have saved himself the trouble
of sending such a signal aloft; for, the mere fact of his already coming
up to the wind and firing a gun, told us as much beforehand!"

"I should think so, sir; but it's just like those Johnny Crapauds--
always gabbling a lot about nothing!" rejoined the commander, who, at
last, had now found