me, I suppose, when his appetite tells him
the dinner hour. He might wear his colours in presence of a senior, too,
and no disgrace to his nobility. By the Lord, Harry Ark, he handles those
yards beautifully! I warrant you, now, some honest man's son is sent
aboard his ship for a dry nurse, in the shape of a first lieutenant, and
we shall have him vapouring, all dinner time, about 'how my ship does
this,' and 'I never suffer that.' Ha! is it not so, sir? He has a thorough
seaman for his First?"

"Few men understand the profession better than does the Captain of yonder
vessel himself," returned Wilder.

"The devil he does! You have been talking with him, Mr Ark, about these
matters, and he has got some of the fashions of the 'Dart.' I see into a
mystery as quick as another!"

"I do assure you, Captain Bignall, there is no safety in confiding in the
ignorance of yonder extra ordinary man."

"Ay, ay, I begin to overhaul his character. The young dog is a quiz, and
has been amusing himself with a sailor of what he calls the old school. Am
I right, sir? He has seen salt water before this cruise?"

"He is almost a native of the seas; for more than thirty years has he
passed his time on them."

"There, Harry Ark, he has done you handsomely. Now, I have his own
assertion for it, that he will not be three-and-twenty until to-morrow."

"On my word, he has deceived you, sir."

"I don't know, Mr Ark; that is a task much easier attempted than
performed. Threescore and four years add as much weight to a man's head as
to his heels! I may have undervalued the skill of the younker but, as to
his years, there can be no great mistake. But where the devil is the
fellow steering to? Has he need of a pinafore from his lady mother to come
on board of a man-of-war for his dinner?"

"See! he is indeed standing from us!" exclaimed Wilder, with a rapidity
and delight that would have excited the suspicions of one more observant
than his Commander.

"If I know the stern from the bows of a ship, what you say is truth,"
returned the other, with some austerity. "Hark ye, Mr Ark, I've a mind to
furnish the coxcomb a lesson in respect for his superiors and give him a
row to whet his appetite. By the Lord, I will; and he may write home an
account of this manoeuvre, too, in his next despatches. Fill away the
after-yards, sir; fill away. Since this _honourable_ youth is disposed to
amuse himself with a sailing-match, he can take no offence that o