up and down the
little apartment, every trace of humour and irony having disappeared in a
look of settled and abstracted care. His companion appeared little
disposed to interrupt his meditations, but stood leaning against the naked
walls, himself the subject of deep and sorrowful reflection. At length the
former shook off his air of thought, with that startling quickness which
seemed common to his manner; he approached a window, and, directing the
attention of Wilder to the ship in the outer harbour, abruptly demanded,--

"Has all your interest in yon vessel ceased?"

"Far from it; it is just such a boat as a seaman's eye most loves to
study!"

"Will you venture to board her?"

"At this hour? alone? I know not her commander, or her people."

"There are other hours beside this, and a sailor is certain of a frank
reception from his messmates."

"These slavers are not always willing to be boarded; they carry arms, and
know how to keep strangers at a distance."

"Are there no watch-words, in the masonry of your trade, by which a
brother is known? Such terms as 'stemming the waves with the taffrail,'
for instance, or some of those knowing phrases we have lately heard?"

Wilder kept his own keen look on the countenance of the other, as he thus
questioned him, and seemed to ponder long before he ventured on a reply.

"Why do you demand all this of me?" he coldly asked.

"Because, as I believe that 'faint heart never won fair lady,' so do I
believe that indecision never won a ship. You wish a situation, you say;
and, if I were an Admiral, I would make you my flag-captain. At the
assizes, when we wish a brief, we have our manner of letting the thing be
known. But perhaps I am talking too much at random for an utter stranger.
You will however remember, that, though it is the advice of a lawyer, it
is given gratuitously."

"And is it the more to be relied on for such extraordinary liberality?"

"Of that you must judge for yourself," said the stranger in green, very
deliberately putting his foot on the ladder, and descending, until no
part of his person but his head was seen. "Here I go, literally cutting
the waves with my taffrail," he added, as he descended backwards, and
seeming to take great pleasure in laying particular emphasis on the words.
"Adieu, my friend; if we do not meet again, I enjoin you never to forget
the rats in the Newport ruin."

He disappeared as he concluded, and in another instant his light for