ible service. What to do I did not know. I ran up and down
every part of the dock-yard until I was quite out of breath, asking
every body I met whether they had seen my two men. Many of them said
that they had seen plenty of men, but did not exactly know mine; some
laughed, and called me a greenhorn. At last I met a midshipman, who
told me that he had seen two men answering to my description on the roof
of the coach starting for London, and that I must be quick if I wished
to catch them; but he would not stop to answer any more questions.

I was proceeding on very disconsolately, when, as I turned a corner, to
my great delight, I met my two men, who touched their hats and said that
they had been looking for me. I did not believe that they told the
truth, but I was so glad to recover them, that I did not scold, but went
with them down to the boat, which had been waiting some time for us.
O'Brien, the master's mate, called me a young sculping, a word I had
never heard before. When we arrived on board, the first lieutenant
asked O'Brien why he had remained so long. He answered that two of the
men had left the boat, but that I had found them. The first lieutenant
appeared to be pleased with me, observing, as he had said before, that I
was no fool, and I went down below overjoyed at my good fortune, and
very much obliged to O'Brien for not telling the whole truth.

A day or two afterwards, we had a new messmate of the name of McFoy. I
was on the quarter-deck when he came on board and presented a letter to
the captain, inquiring first if his name was "Captain Sauvage." He was
a florid young man, nearly six feet high, with sandy hair, yet very
good-looking. As his career in the service was very short, I will tell
at once, what I did not find out till some time afterwards. The captain
had agreed to receive him to oblige a brother officer, who had retired
from the service, and lived in the Highlands of Scotland. The first
notice which the captain had of the arrival of Mr McFoy, was from a
letter written to him by the young man's uncle. This amused him so much
that he gave it to the first lieutenant to read: it ran as follows:--

"GLASGOW, April 25th, 1---.

"Sir,--Our much esteemed and mutual friend, Captain McAlpine, having
communicated by letter, dated the 14th inst., your kind intentions
relative to my nephew, Sholto McFoy (for which you will be pleased to
accept my best thanks), I write to acquaint