away lies the island, and you are for going into
yonder bit of a church."

"Lay on your oars," interrupted Wilder; "let the boat drift by this
vessel."

They were now in the act of passing the ship, which had been warping from
the wharfs to an anchorage and in which the young sailor had so
clandestinely heard that Mrs Wyllys and the fascinating Gertrude were to
embark, on the following morning, for the distant province of Carolina. As
the skiff floated past, Wilder examined the vessel, by the dim light of
the stars, with a seaman's eye. No part of her hull, her spars, or her
rigging, escaped his notice, and, when the whole became confounded, by the
distance, in one dark mass of shapeless matter, he leaned his head over
the side of his little bark, and mused long and deeply with himself. To
this abstraction Fid presumed to offer no interruption. It had the
appearance of professional duty; a subject that, in his eyes, was endowed
with a species of character that might be called sacred. Scipio was
habitually silent. After losing many minutes in the manner, Wilder
suddenly regained his recollection and abruptly observed,--

"It is a tall ship, and one that should make a long chase!"

"That's as may be," returned the ready Fid. "Should that fellow get a free
wind, and his canvas all abroad, it might worry a King's cruiser to get
nigh enough to throw the iron on his decks; but jamm'd up close hauled,
why, I'd engage to lay on his weather quarter, with the saucy He--"

"Boys," interrupted Wilder, "it is now proper that you dhould know
something of my future movements. We have been shipmates, I might almost
say messmates, for more than twenty years. I was better than an infant,
Fid, when you brought me to the commander of your ship, and not only was
instrumental in saving my life, but in putting me into a situation to make
an officer."

"Ay, ay, you were no great matter, master Harry as to bulk; and a short
hammock served your turn as well as the captain's birth."

"I owe you a heavy debt, Fid, for that one generous act, and something, I
may add, for your steady adherence to me since."

"Why, yes, I've been pretty steady in my conduct master Harry, in this
here business, more particularly seeing that I have never let go my
grapplings, though you've so often sworn to turn me adrift. As for Guinea,
here, the chap makes fair weather with you, blow high or blow low, whereas
it is no hard matter to get up a squall between us