rd, Master Bob, boylike, suggested their slipping the _Zephyr's_
moorings and going for a little sail out into the offing.

"We needn't run very far," he said. "Say, only to the fort there and
back again, you know."

But Dick would not hear of the proposal.

"No, Master Bob, not lest the Cap'en gived orders," he remonstrated.
"Why, he'd turn me off if I did it; and, he's that kind to me as I
wouldn't like to vex him, no not for nothing!"

"He wouldn't mind me though," argued Bob. "Didn't he say the other
day--why, you heard him tell Hellyer yourself--that he'd back you and me
to manage a boat against any two boys in Portsmouth, aye, or any port on
the south coast?"

"Ees, I heerd him," reluctantly assented the other; "but that didn't
mean fur us to go out in the boat alone."

"Well, Dick, I didn't think you were a coward!" said Bob with great
contempt, angry at being thwarted. "I really didn't."

This cut the other to the heart.

"You doesn't mean that, Master Bob," he exclaimed reproachfully,
hesitating to utter his scathing reply. "Ah, you didn't say as I wer' a
coward that time as I jumped into the water arter you behind the
castle."

"Forgive me, Dick," cried Bob impulsively, "I was a beast to say such a
thing! Of course, I know you are not a coward; but, really, I'm sure
the Captain would not mind a bit our going for a sail--especially if he
knew, and he does know, about my being left behind all alone while they
all have gone off to Southampton in the steamer enjoying themselves!"

This last appeal made Dick hesitate; and, in hesitating thus, he lost
his firmness of resolution.

"Well, Master Bob, if we only goes a little ways and you promises fur to
come back afore the tide turns, I don't mind unmooring for a bit;
though, mind, Master Bob, you'll bear all the blame if the Cap'en says
anythink about it!"

"Of course I will, Dick, if he does; but I know he won't say anything.
You may make your mind easy on that score!" With these words, Bob
sprang forward on the fo'c's'le and began loosening the jib from its
fastenings; while Dick, now that his scruples were overcome, set to work
casting off the gaskets of the mainsail, the two boys then manning the
halliards with a will, and hoisting the throat of the sail well up.

The jib was then set, its sheet being slackened until Dick slipped the
buoy marking the yacht's moorings overboard; when, the tack being hauled
aft, and the mainsail peaked, the bo