s touching, Master Skimmer," returned the
corrupt Cornbury; "it were a pity such friendship should be wasted. Will
there be proof to insure his condemnation?"

"It may be doubted. His dealings have only been with the higher class of
my customers, and with but few of them. The care I now take is more in
tenderness to the youth, than with any great doubts of the result. I shall
count you, my lord, among his protectors, in the event that the affair is
noised?"

"I owe it to your frankness--but will Mr. Ludlow content himself with the
possession of an inferior, when the principal is so near? and shall we not
have a confiscation of the brigantine on our hands?"

"I charge myself with the care of all else. There was indeed a lucky
escape, only the last night, as we lay at a light kedge, waiting for the
return of him who has been arrested. Profiting by the possession of our
skiff; the commander of the Coquette, himself, got within the sweep of my
hawse--nay, he was in the act of cutting the very fastenings, when the
dangerous design was discovered. 'Twould have been a fate unworthy of the
Water-Witch, to be cast on shore like a drifting log, and to check her
noble career by some such a seizure as that of a stranded waif!"

"You avoided the mischance?"

"My eyes are seldom shut, lord Viscount, when danger is nigh. The skiff
was seen in time, and watched; for I knew that one in whom I trusted was
abroad.--When the movement grew suspicious, we had our means of
frightening this Mr. Ludlow from his enterprise, without recourse to
violence."

"I had not thought him one to be scared from following up a business like
this."

"You judged him rightly--I may say we judged him rightly. But when his
boats sought us at our anchorage, the bird had flown."

"You got the brigantine to sea, in season?" observed Cornbury, not sorry
to believe that the vessel was already off the coast.

"I had other business. My agent could not be thus deserted, and there were
affairs to finish in the city. Our course lay up the bay."

"Ha! Master Skimmer, 'twas a bold step, and one that says little for your
discretion!"

"Lord Viscount, there is safety in courage," calmly and perhaps ironically
returned the other. "While the Queen's captain closed all the outlets, my
little craft was floating quietly under the hills of Staten. Before the
morning watch was set, she passed these wharves; and she now awaits her
captain, in the broad basin that lies bey