ndence on their
own exertions. I have been nigher to a flag even, and yet you see I
continue to keep on this mortal coil."

"Hark! 'Tis a drum. The stranger is going to his guns."

The Rover listened a moment, and was able to catch the well-known beat
which calls the people of a vessel of war to quarters. First casting a
glance upward at his sails, and then throwing a general and critical look
on all and every thing which came within the influence of his command, he
calmly answered,--

"We will imitate his example, Mr Wilder. Let the order be given."

Until now, the crew of the "Dolphin" had either been occupied in such
necessary duties as had been assigned them, or were engaged in gazing with
curious eyes at the ship which so eagerly sought to draw as near as
possible to their own dangerous vessel. The low but continued hum of
voices, sounds such alone as discipline permitted, had afforded the only
evidence of the interest they took in the scene; but, the instant the
first tap on the drum was heard, each groupe severed, and every man
repaired, with bustling activity, to his well-known station. The stir
among the crew was but of a moment's continuance, and it was succeeded by
the breathing stillness which has already been noticed in our pages on a
similar occasion. The officers, however, were seen making hasty, but
strict, inquiries into the conditions of their several commands; while the
munitions of war, that were quickly drawn from their places of deposit,
announced a preparation more serious than ordinary. The Rover himself had
disappeared; but it was not long before he was again seen at his elevated
look-out accoutred for the conflict that appeared to approach, employed,
as ever, in studying the properties, the force, and the evolutions of his
advancing antagonist. Those who knew him best, however, said that the
question of combat was not yet decided in his mind; and hundreds of eager
glances were thrown in the direction of his contracting eye, as if to
penetrate the mystery in which he still chose to conceal his purpose. He
had thrown aside the sea-cap, and stood with the fair hair blowing about a
brow that seemed formed to give birth to thoughts far nobler than those
which apparently had occupied his life, while a species of leathern helmet
lay at his feet, the garniture of which was of a nature to lend an
unnatural fierceness to the countenance of its wearer. Whenever this
boarding-cap was worn, all in the sh