ly with my fair prisoner. Now,
by some wonderful chance or other, he has discovered that she was not
lost in the _Zodiac_, and has come here to look for her--I see it all at
once, and if I am right--good luck befriend me; for, should he discover
me, I have not a chance of escape. It would be wiser not to venture on
board, but to pull quietly back to the mistico, and to wait till night,
when we may try the effect of our fire-ship; but, then again, it is not
likely that any one but he should know me at all, and my dress is so
different to what it was when he saw me, and my beard is so grown, that
even, should I be brought into his presence, he will not probably
recognise me. I may gain something of what they are about, and the
venture is, at at events, worth making."

Zappa arrived at this conclusion as his boat ran alongside the _Ione_,
when it was rather too late to think of turning back; indeed, he felt
that his attempting to do so would at once bring suspicion on him. It
now occurred to him, that to gain any information, it would be necessary
to employ some means of exchanging ideas, and for that purpose, he must
speak a little of the _lingua Franca_ so generally made use of. With a
dauntless air, therefore, he sprang up the side, and, as he stood at the
gangway, he ordered his men to hand him up some of the finest of the
fish. While they were doing so, his eye ranged over the decks, fore and
aft, and he was glad to see that Captain Fleetwood was not among the
officers who were collected on the poop, watching him and his boat. The
gun-room steward was the first to become the purchaser of a fine dish of
fish for his master, at a very low price, too, which much astonished
him. He smelt at them, and examined their gills, and turned them over
most critically; for he could not help fancying that there must be some
defect.

The fact was, Zappa had entirely forgotten to learn what price to ask;
for, as he had seldom before acted the part of a fishmonger, he had not
the slightest conception of what was their value, and was very nearly
betraying himself thereby. He saw, however, with his usual acuteness,
that he had made a mistake, and took care to correct it with the next
purchaser, who was the midshipmen's steward, and who came accompanied by
their caterer; but though they had to pay more, the price was still so
low as to induce them to lay in a stock for future consumption. The
warrant-officers and ship's company