past the
rising of the sun!"

The Skimmer showed no yielding of the nerves though it was evident, by his
attitude of thought and the momentary fixedness of his eye, that he
foresaw danger was near. Moving to the window, he looked out on the water,
and instantly drew back, like one who wanted no further evidence.

"Our bargain then is made," he said, hastily approaching the Viscount,
whose hand he seized and wrung in spite of the other's obvious reluctance
to allow the familiarity; "our bargain then is made. Deal fairly by the
youth, and the deed will be remembered--deal treacherously, and it shall
be revenged!"

For one instant longer, the Skimmer held the member of the effeminate
Cornbury imprisoned; and then, raising his cap with a courtesy that
appeared more in deference to himself than his companion, he turned on his
heel, and with a firm but quick step he left the house.

Carnaby, who entered on the instant, found his guest in a state between
resentment, surprise, and alarm. But habitual levity soon conquered other
feelings, and, finding himself freed from the presence of a man who had
treated him with so little ceremony, the ex-governor shook his head, like
one accustomed to submit to evils he could not obviate, and assumed the
ease and insolent superiority he was accustomed to maintain in the
presence of the obsequious grocer.

"This may be a coral or a pearl, or any other lion--ha! do I not see the
masts of a ship, moving above the roofs of yonder line of stores?"

"Well, your lordship has the quickest eye!--and the happiest way of seeing
things, of any nobleman in England! Now I should have stared a quarter of
an hour, before I thought of looking over the roofs of those stores, at
all; and yet your lordship looks there at the very first glance."

"Is it a ship or a brig, Master Carnaby--you have the advantage of
position, for I would not willingly be seen--speak quickly, dolt;--is it
ship, or brig?"

"My lord--'tis a brig--or a ship--really I must ask your lordship, for I
know so little of these things----"

"Nay, complaisant Master Carnaby--have an opinion of your own for one
moment, if you please--there is smoke curling upward, behind those
masts----"

Another rattling of windows, and a second report, removed all doubts on
the subject of the firing. At the next instant, the bows of a vessel of
war appeared at the opening of a ship-yard, and then came gun after gun in
view, until the whole broadsid