out
intermission, ending with these words: "So you see, brother, the dear
girl is positively immolating herself on the altar of filial love, and
what she considers duty. She loves the old man Keane surely more dearly
than daughter has any right to love a father; and her main ambition and
object in life is to see the lonely man happy and respected in his old
age. So, dear Tom, don't bid me leave my fool's paradise yet a while.
You have _your_ happiness; I--"

He paused, and sighed a weary kind of sigh.

Tom was touched to the very bottom of his heart. He stretched his arm
across the walnuts and grasped his friend's hand.

"Poor Jack!" he said. "Live in your paradise and be happy. Would that I
could give you hopes that your lease will be a very long one."

"Besides," continued Jack, excusing himself a little more, "with a light
heart I shall be able to drub the French more cheerfully."

Tom's eyes sparkled.

"Ah yes!" he said; "and for the very same reason I too feel in the
finest of form for drubbing the French."

"And we've had no single-ship action with the Dons yet."

"Their time is coming."

"Yes, their time is coming. A man never swings a sword half so well, nor
sails and fights a ship so well, as when he is in love and happy:

'For mickle lighter is the boat
When love bears up the creel.'"

CHAPTER XVIII.

"WOULD HE EVER COME AGAIN?"

"A sailor's life's the life for me,
He takes his duty merrily;
If bullets whistle, Jack can sing,
Still faithful to his friend and king."
DIBDIN.

Jack was right about love and "the creel," or rather, I should say, the
old song is right,--

"Mickle lighter is the boat
When love bears up the creel."

For the next three months the swift _Tonneraire_ was here, there, and
everywhere--except in England. She cruised much farther south, and
chiefly along the coast of France, and seldom put into harbour except to
cut out some merchantman, snugly ensconced, perhaps, under the guns of a
fort, and deeming herself in a very safe position. It was,
unfortunately for her, the feeling of security that proved her ruin.

Three or four several times did the _Tonneraire_ thus prove herself a
crack ship. A crack ship with a crack crew and officers, remember; for
the best of ships is but a drone unless well managed. Not even a drone,
indeed; for a drone is a most duty-full bee, and a most respectable