w something of
that ship."

"Aye, aye--bear a hand, if you please; for we want to make the most of
this wind while it stands."

It is singular how easily we are deceived, when the mind commences by
taking a wrong direction. Such was now the fact with him in the boat,
for he had imbibed the notion that he could trace the outlines of a
felucca, of which so many navigate those waters, and the idea that it
was the very lugger he had been seeking never crossed his mind. Acting
under the delusion, he was soon alongside, and on the deck of his enemy.

"Do you know this gentleman, Etooelle?" demanded Raoul, who had gone to
the gangway to receive his visitor.

"It is Mr. Clinch, the master's-mate of the accursed Proserpine; he who
spoke us in the yawl, off the point yonder."

"How!" exclaimed Clinch, his alarm being sufficiently apparent in his
voice; "have I fallen into the hands of Frenchmen?"

"You have, Monsieur," answered Raoul, courteously, "but not into the
hands of enemies. This is le Feu-Follet, and I am Raoul Yvard."

"Then all hope for Jane is gone forever! I have passed a happy day,
though a busy one, for I did begin to think there was some chance for
me. A man cannot see Nelson without pulling up, and wishing to be
something like him; but a prison is no place for promotion."

"Let us go into my cabin, Monsieur. There we can converse more at our
ease; and we shall have a light."

Clinch was in despair; it mattered not to him whither he was taken. In
the cabin he sat the picture of a helpless man, and a bottle of brandy
happening to stand on the table, he eyed it with something like the
ferocity with which the hungry wolf may be supposed to gaze at the lamb
ere he leaps the fold.

"Is this the gentleman you mean, Etooelle?" demanded Raoul, when the
cabin-lamp shone on the prisoner's face; "he who was so much rejoiced to
hear that his enemy was _not_ hanged?"

"'Tis the same, Captain Rule; in the main, he is a good-natured
officer--one that does more harm to himself than to any one else. They
said in the ship, that he went up to Naples to do you some good turn
or other."

"_Bon_!--you have been long in your boat, Mr. Clinch--we will give you a
warm supper and a glass of wine--after which, you are at liberty to seek
your frigate, and to return to your own flag."

Clinch stared as if he did not, or could not, believe what he
heard--then the truth flashed on his mind, and he burst into tears.
Throughout t