breaking away from the mutinous
fleet, and of their firing on you as you passed, and that is in your
favour. I can also say this: that bringing the ship here was masterly
work, for I understand there were no officers on the Ariadne. She always
had the reputation of being one of the best-trained ships in the navy,
and she has splendidly upheld that reputation. How did you manage it,
Mr. Calhoun?"

Dyck briefly told how the lieutenants were made, and how he himself had
been enormously indebted to Greenock, the master of the ship, and all
the subordinate officers.

The admiral smiled sourly. "I have little power until I get instructions
from the Admiralty, and that will take some time. Meanwhile, the Ariadne
shall go on as she is, and as if she were--and had been from the first,
a member of my own squadron."

Dyck bowed, explained what reforms he had created in the food and
provisions of the Ariadne, and expressed a hope that nothing should be
altered. He said the ship had proved herself, chiefly because of his
reforms.

"Besides, she's been badly hammered. She's got great numbers of wounded
and dead, and for many a day the men will be busy with repairs."

"For a man without naval experience, for a mutineer, an ex-convict and a
usurper, you've done quite well, Mr. Calhoun; but my instructions were,
if I captured your ship, and you fell into my hands, to try you, and
hang you."

At this point Captain Ivy intervened.

"Sir," he said, "the instructions you received were general. They could
not anticipate the special service which the Ariadne has rendered to the
king's fleet. I have known Mr. Calhoun; I have visited at his father's
house; I was with him on his journey to Dublin, which was the beginning
of his bad luck. I would beg of you, sir, to give Mr. Calhoun his parole
on sea and land until word comes from the Admiralty as to what, in the
circumstances, his fate shall be."

"To be kept on the Beatitude on parole!" exclaimed the admiral.

"Land or sea, Captain Ivy said. I'm as well-born as any man in the
king's fleet," declared Dyck. "I've as clean a record as any officer in
his majesty's navy, save for the dark fact that I was put in prison
for killing a man; and I will say here, in the secrecy of an admiral's
cabin, that the man I killed--or was supposed to kill--was a traitor. If
I did kill him, he deserved death by whatever hand it came. I care not
what you do with me"--his hands clenched, his shoulders dre