Wilder."

"Want of firmness is not their fault; if the same quality can always be
observed in administering them, it is well," returned the other, rising to
salute his superior. "I have never found such rigid rules, even in"----

"Even in what, sir?" demanded the Rover, perceiving that his companion
hesitated.

"I was about to say, 'Even in his Majesty's service,'" returned Wilder,
slightly colouring. "I know not whether it may be a fault, or a
recommendation, to have served in a King's ship."

"It is the latter; at least I, for one, should think it so, since I
learned my trade in the same service."

"In what ship?" eagerly interrupted Wilder.

"In many," was the cold reply. "But, speaking of rigid rules, you will
soon perceive, that, in a service where there are no courts on shore to
protect us, nor any sister-cruisers to look after each other's welfare, no
small portion of power is necessarily vested in the Commander. You find my
authority a good deal extended."

"A little unlimited," said Wilder, with a smile that might have passed
for ironical.

"I hope you will have no occasion to say that it is arbitrarily executed,"
returned the Rover, without observing, or perhaps without letting it
appear that he observed, the expression of his companion's countenance.
"But your hour is come, and you are now at liberty to land."

The young man thanked him, with a courteous inclination of the head, and
expressed his readiness to go. As they ascended the ladder into the upper
cabin, the Captain expressed his regret that the hour, and the necessity
of preserving the incognito of his ship, would not permit him to send an
officer of his rank ashore in the manner he could wish.

"But then there is the skiff, in which you came off, still alongside, and
your own two stout fellows will soon twitch you to yon point. A propos of
those two men, are they included in our arrangements?"

"They have never quitted me since my childhood, and would not wish to do
it now."

"It is a singular tie that unites two men, so oddly constituted, to one so
different, by habits and education, from themselves," returned the Rover,
glancing his eye keenly at the other, and withdrawing it the instant he
perceived his interest in the answer was observed.

"It is," Wilder calmly replied; "but, as we are all seamen, the difference
is not so great as one would at first imagine. I will now join them, and
take an opportunity to let them, know that th