o Ronald
gave him the whole story as he had heard it. His captain was much
interested.

"What a delightful thread to unravel!" he exclaimed. "I should like to
aid in it; but unless you have a clue, it is not likely that her son
will be discovered."

"She lives on in hopes that he may," answered Ronald. "I pray that she
may not be disappointed. I owe her a debt of gratitude I can never
repay for all the instruction she gave me."

"Perhaps you may be able to serve her," remarked Lord Claymore. "Though
it strikes me, from what I can make out, that she was but repaying the
debt she owes you."

Ronald did not inquire what his captain meant, for they were both
summoned on deck with the pleasant information that a sail was in sight.
The frigate was at this time off the Azores.

"What does she look like?" was the question hurriedly put, as the
captain himself was buckling his telescope over his shoulder preparatory
to mounting the rigging to take a look at the stranger should the answer
be promising.

"A ship, and a big one," was the reply.

In a few seconds Lord Claymore had joined the look-out man aloft. When
the captain was thus active it was not likely that the officers and crew
would neglect their duty. Lord Claymore took a long steady look at the
stranger through his telescope, and returning on deck ordered the ship's
course to be altered a couple of points, and all sail to be made in
chase.

"Morton, I have a wonderful presentiment that yonder craft is loaded
with the pewter and cobs we have been promising our fellows," he
exclaimed, walking the deck with a quick step. "Her top-gallant-sails
and royals have a foreign cut, and the blanched hue of cotton cloth such
as the rich galleons of Spain usually carry. They are heavy sailers,
too, and the `Pallas,' as I thought she would, has shown herself light
of heel. We shall get up with the chase before any third party steps in
to snap up our prey."

Not only Ronald, but every man and boy in the ship entered fully into
the captain's eagerness. All longed for prize-money; the greater
number, probably, that they might spend it as sailors in those days got
rid of their hard-earned gains, in wild extravagance and debauchery; a
few might have thought of their old fathers, mothers, and sisters, whose
comforts they hoped to increase; or some one, more romantic than his
shipmates, might have had in view some quiet woodbine-covered cottage,
on the sunny slope of