since that sight was seen, and though a seaman of many voyages, my
eyes have not looked upon the Roman coast, from that hour to this. Will
your Honor lead the way from the bluff, as becomes your rank?"

"Your tale of the burning cross and looming church, Master Tiller, had
almost caused me to forget to watch the movements of yon periagua,"
returned Ludlow, who still continued to face the bay. "That obstinate old
Dutchman----I say, Sir, that Mr. Alderman Van Beverout has greater
confidence in this description of craft than I feel myself. I like not the
looks of yonder cloud, which is rising from out the mouth of Raritan; and
here, seaward, we have a gloomy horizon.--By Heaven! there is a sail
playing in the offing or my eye hath lost its use and judgment."

"Your Honor sees the wing of the sporting gull, again; it had been nigh to
deceive my sight, which would be to cheat the look-out of a man that has
the advantage of some ten or fifteen years' more practice in marine
appearances. I remember once, when beating in among the islands of the
China seas, with the trades here at south-east----"

"Enough of your marvels, friend; the church is as much as I can swallow,
in one morning--It may have been a gull! for I confess the object small;
yet it had the steadiness and size of a distant sail! There is some reason
to expect one on our coast, for whom a bright and seaman's watch must be
had."

"This may then leave me a choice of ships," rejoined Tiller. "I thank your
Honor for having spoken, before I had given myself away to the Queen; who
is a lady that is much more apt to receive gifts of this nature, than to
return them."

"If your respect aboard shall bear any proportion to your hardihood on
shore, you may be accounted a model of civility! But a mariner of your
pretension should have some regard to the character of the vessel in which
he takes service."

"That of which your Honor spoke, is then a buccaneer?"

"If not a buccaneer, one but little better. A lawless trader, under the
most favorable view; and there are those who think that he, who has gone
so far, has not stopt short of the end. But the reputation of the 'Skimmer
of the Seas' must be known to one who has navigated the ocean, long as
you."

"You will overlook the curiosity of a seafaring man, in a matter of his
profession," returned the mariner of the sash, with strong and evident
interest in his manner. "I am lately from a distant ocean, and though many