the admiral
stopped him.

"I have no doubt that you are short of cash, Stephen," he said, "and just
at the present moment of course you cannot draw upon your bankers in
England, for your father will naturally have long since believed you dead,
and the account will be transferred to himself; so I must be your banker
for the present. Here are two hundred and fifty dollars. Tell the fellows
who make your uniform--Crosbie will tell you where to go to--that you will
pay them something extra to get one suit finished by to-morrow. We shall
sail in a couple of days."

After thanking the admiral, Stephen retired just as the lieutenant entered
the cabin. On asking the captain as to the address of the best firm of
tailors the latter said:

"I am just going ashore myself to see about some stores from the dockyard,
and will go there with you. As I am known to them they will probably
sharpen up more than if you, a stranger, went by yourself."

As they rowed ashore Stephen learned from Captain Crosbie that the fleet
ready for sea consisted, in addition to the flagship, of one fine frigate,
the _Piranza_, the _Maria da Gloria_, a converted merchantman mounting
thirty-three small guns, and the _Liberal_, about the same size.

"We take with us two old vessels that will be used as fire-ships, and the
_Carolina_ and another ship that are not yet equipped will join us later
on. We are first going to attack Bahia, where we shall have all our work
cut out. The Portuguese have three line-of-battle ships, five frigates,
five corvettes, a brig, and a schooner. The worst of the thing is that we
cannot depend upon our crews. I think that our ship will be all right, but
the others are all largely manned by Portuguese, who are as likely as not
to mutiny directly we get near the enemy, and to take the ships over to
them. Besides that, our equipments are simply miserable--the cartridges are
all unfit for service, the fuses of the shells are absolutely
untrustworthy, the powder is wretched, the marines know nothing either of
working the big guns or of the use of the small ones, and are moreover an
insolent, lazy set of rascals, and consider themselves as something
infinitely superior to the sailors. Lord Cochrane will doubtless add to
his own great reputation by the deeds he will perform here, but assuredly
he will find that he will be harassed well-nigh to death by the different
factions, and will have difficulties placed in his way at every turn