d
of le Feu-Follet's jigger yard, a spar that was always kept aloft in
moderate weather. What the signal meant Raoul did not know, for though
he was provided with signals by means of which to communicate with the
vessels of war of his own nation, the Directory had not been able to
supply him with those necessary to communicate with the enemy. Ithuel's
ingenuity, however, had supplied the deficiency. While serving on board
the Proserpine, the very ship that was now menacing the lugger, he had
seen a meeting between her and a privateer English lugger, one of the
two or three of that rig which sailed out of England, and his observant
eye had noted the flags she had shown on the occasion. Now, as
privateersmen are not expected to be expert or even very accurate in the
use of signals, he had ventured to show these very numbers, let it prove
for better or worse. Had he been on the quarter-deck of the frigate, he
would have ascertained, through the benedictions bestowed by Captain
Cuffe, that his _ruse_ had so far succeeded as to cause that officer to
attribute his unintelligible answer to ignorance, rather than to design.
Nevertheless, the frigate did not seem disposed to alter her course;
for, either influenced by a desire to anchor, or by a determination to
take a still closer look at the lugger, she stood on, nearing the
eastern side of the bay, at the rate of some six miles to the hour.

Raoul Yvard now thought it time to look to the safety of le Feu-Follet
in person. Previously to landing he had given instructions as to what
was to be done in the event of the frigate's coming close in; but
matters now seemed so very serious that he hurried down the hill,
overtaking Vito Viti in his way, who was repairing to the harbor to give
instructions to certain boatmen concerning the manner in which the
quarantine laws were to be regarded, in an intercourse with a
British frigate.

"You ought to be infinitely happy at the prospect of meeting an
honorable countryman in this Sir Brown," observed the short-winded
podesta, who usually put himself out of breath both in ascending and
descending the steep street, "for he really seems determined to anchor
in our bay, Signor Smees."

"To tell you the truth, Signor Podesta, I wish I was half as well
persuaded that it _is_ Sir Brown and la Proserpine as I was an hour ago.
I see symptoms of its being a republican, after all, and must have a
care for ze Ving-and-Ving."

"The devil carry awa