of your formation."

"Harry Ark!" exclaimed Bignall, clearing his throat with a hem so vigorous
as to carry the sound to the outer deck, seizing the arm of his entranced
lieutenant, and dragging him from the scene while he spoke. "What the
devil besets the boy! You forget that, all this time, I am as ignorant of
your own adventures as is his Majesty's prime minister of navigation Why
do I see you, here, a visitor from a royal cruiser, when I thought you
were playing the mock pirate? and how came that harum-scarum twig of
nobility in possession of so goodly a company, as well as of so brave a
ship?"

Wilder drew a long and deep breath, like one that awakes from a pleasing
dream, reluctantly suffering himself to be forced from a spot where he
fondly felt that he could have continued, without weariness, for ever.

Chapter XXIX.

"Let them achieve me, and then sell my bones."--_Henry V._

The Commander of the "Dart," and his bewildered lieutenant, had gained the
quarter-deck before either spoke again. The direction first taken by the
eyes of the latter was in quest of the neighbouring ship; nor was the look
entirely without that unsettled and vague expression which seems to
announce a momentary aberration of the faculties. But the vessel of the
Rover was in view, in all the palpable and beautiful proportions of her
admirable construction Instead of lying in a state of rest, as when he
left her, her head-yards had been swung, and, as the sails filled with the
breeze, the stately fabric had he gun to Marve gracefully, though with no
great velocity along the water. There was not the slightest appearance
however, of any attempt at escape in the evolution. On the contrary, the
loftier and lighter sails had all been furled, and men were at the moment
actively employed in sending to the deck those smaller spars which were
absolutely requisite in spreading the canvas that would be needed in
facilitating her flight. Wilder turned from the sight with a sickening
apprehension; for he well knew that these were the preparations that
skillful mariners are wont to make, when bent on desperate combat.

"Ay, yonder goes your St. James's seaman, with his three topsails full,
and his mizzen out, as if he had already forgotten he is to dine with me,
and that his name is to be found at one end of the list of Commanders and
mine at the other," grumbled the displeased Bignall. "But we shall have
him coming round all in good ti