h to trim sails!"

The braces were then manned and the main yard swung, while our helm put
hard a-starboard; when, the upper sails now filling and drawing again,
our courses were dropped and the tacks hauled aboard, the clew garnets
rattling as they were brought aft, and the ship put on her course.

We bore away, though, a couple of points more to the southward than
before, steering sou'-sou'-west, towards the position of the wreck, as
pointed out to us by our communicative friends, the strange ship.

"By Jove, sir," exclaimed the commander as we bade farewell to the
Frenchman, who also filled at the same time and went about on his way,
both of us dipping our ensigns once more in salute, "we never thought of
asking his name!"

"No more we did, Nesbitt," said Captain Farmer; and the two stared at
each other for a moment in silence, the captain ultimately breaking into
a laugh. "But, that need not trouble you; for, I should know that
corvette anywhere, I think, from the way she tumbles home from her water
line abaft the beam. She's the old _Serieuse_ for a thousand!"

"Indeed, sir?"

"Yes. She was one of the French fleet in the Black Sea when I was out
there with old Dundas. I've been alongside her too often to forget her
queer build!"

"But, I thought most of those French corvettes were wall-sided, sir?"

"Ay, true enough," replied Captain Farmer, with a chuckle, as he came
down the poop-ladder and turned to go into his cabin. "But, not all of
them, Nesbitt, not all of them, my boy. I tell you, I would know the
old _Serieuse_ anywhere, for they haven't got another tub like her
afloat."

"The `old man's' right," I heard the master say to Mr Stormcock when
the captain had disappeared. "The corvette was on the right of our line
when we bombarded Odessa; and I recollect she missed stays when tacking,
and pretty nearly came aboard us."

"By jingo," replied Mr Stormcock, enthusiastically, "what an eye the
old man has for a ship, and what a memory for signals! I never came
across his equal."

So thought I too; however, each day disclosed some fresh trait in our
captain's character, which surprised us all the more from his being such
a very reserved man.

He was in the habit of keeping himself to himself until occasion arose
to bring out his latent qualities.

Time, and a longer acquaintance with him, only taught us this pregnant
fact, amongst other things!

While all the signalling had been going on, t