hought it would be an easier life than I find it, but this
cruising up and down the Channel and blockading the enemy's ports is
trying work, and often I wish myself on shore again, taking a stroll or
galloping through Sherwood Forest."

"That's because you have not a right object in view," answered Jack.
"Now I have made up my mind to take the roughs and smooths as I find
them. If I get shot or wounded, it is the fate of many a better man;
and if I escape, I hope to fight my way up to wear a cocked hat and
laced coat."

"That's very well for you, Deane, because you were born a gentleman,"
said Smedley. "I came to sea because I could not help it: all about
that poaching affair, and the burning of the houses."

"I wish we had never engaged in it, I own," said Jack. "It has cost me
dear; and what I regret most is the injury it did my character in the
place, and the annoyance it must have caused my family when it was found
out."

"What do you mean?" asked Smedley. "I do not understand you."

"Why, that the man who met us on that night, and showed us how to spear
the salmon, told me that a warrant was out against me for poaching and
firing the huts, and that if I went back to Nottingham I should be sent
to prison," answered Jack.

"He told you a lie, then. Your name has never been mentioned in
connexion with the affair; and to this day, unless you have told any
body, I am very sure that no one in Nottingham knows any thing about
it."

"Then what object could Pearson have had for saying so?" said Jack.

"I have an idea," said Smedley; "I may be right or I may be wrong; and
from what you have told me of the man, he has just wanted to keep you
from going back to Nottingham. Why he did so I cannot exactly say,
except that he probably wanted to make use of you in some way or other."

The light at length burst on Jack's mind, and at once he saw the danger
of getting into bad company. Had he refrained from joining in that
fatal expedition, he would not have met Pearson; and if he had not met
Pearson, he would never have been drawn into the plot which had so
nearly cost him dear. Perhaps even his life might have been sacrificed
in consequence! He did not say this to Smedley, because he had
determined not to say any thing to him about the plot in which he had
been unintentionally mixed up.

"It shall be a lesson to me through life," he thought. "If a person
once associates with evil-disposed people, he knows not