e palm tree above his head to rattling and
clattering continually against the sky, where, the moon then being about
full, they shone every now and then like blades of steel. The waves also
were splashing up against the little landing place at the foot of the
garden, sounding very cool in the night, and sparkling all over the
harbor where the moon caught the edges of the water. A great many
vessels were lying at anchor in their ridings, with the dark, prodigious
form of a man-of-war looming up above them in the moonlight.

There our hero sat for the best part of an hour, smoking his pipe of
tobacco and sipping his grog, and seeing not so much as a single thing
that might concern the note he had received.

It was not far from half an hour after the time appointed in the note,
when a rowboat came suddenly out of the night and pulled up to the
landing place at the foot of the garden above mentioned, and three
or four men came ashore in the darkness. Without saying a word among
themselves they chose a near-by table and, sitting down, ordered rum
and water, and began drinking their grog in silence. They might have
sat there about five minutes, when, by and by, Barnaby True became aware
that they were observing him very curiously; and then almost immediately
one, who was plainly the leader of the party, called out to him:

"How now, messmate! Won't you come and drink a dram of rum with us?"

"Why, no," says Barnaby, answering very civilly; "I have drunk enough
already, and more would only heat my blood."

"All the same," quoth the stranger, "I think you will come and drink
with us; for, unless I am mistook, you are Mr. Barnaby True, and I am
come here to tell you that the Royal Sovereign is come in."

Now I may honestly say that Barnaby True was never more struck aback in
all his life than he was at hearing these words uttered in so unexpected
a manner. He had been looking to hear them under such different
circumstances that, now that his ears heard them addressed to him, and
that so seriously, by a perfect stranger, who, with others, had thus
mysteriously come ashore out of the darkness, he could scarce believe
that his ears heard aright. His heart suddenly began beating at a
tremendous rate, and had he been an older and wiser man, I do believe
he would have declined the adventure, instead of leaping blindly, as
he did, into that of which he could see neither the beginning nor the
ending. But being barely one-and-twenty