ictory."

"I like your plan very much, and it has my hearty concurrence, as I have
no doubt it will have Rawson's," said Captain Grantham. "We shall soon
have him up with us, and when he comes on board you can explain your
proposal. The _Venus_ should be near us by this time." He rang his
bell, and the steward appeared. "Mason, learn from the officer of the
watch how soon the _Venus_ will be up with us, and beg him to signalise
her captain to come on board."

"She's close to us now, sir," said Mason, as he went to fulfil the rest
of the order.

In about a quarter of an hour, Captain Rawson was ushered into the
cabin. He was a short, fat man, with a large, round, red, good-natured
countenance, and if he was a fire-eater, as he had the character of
being, he certainly did not look like one, except it might be supposed
that the ruddy hue on his cheeks could have arisen from that cause. He
shook the hands of his brother-captains, as if he would have wrung them
off, and then threw himself into a chair to recover from his exertions;
but, when he began to speak, instead of the rough voice one might have
expected, a soft, mellifluous tone was heard, which might better win a
woman's ear than vie with the howling of the tempest. He at once waived
all the right he might claim to lead the attack on the island, and
cordially agreed to the plan proposed by Captain Fleetwood.

"In fact," he said, laughing, "there is no great credit due to me,
Fleetwood; for I would much rather fight a ship twice the size of my own
with the deck under my feet, than have to scramble up such a place as
you describe, on a pitch-dark night, to thrash a few scoundrels of
pirates."

"If I don't mistake, you tried the first, and with no little success,"
observed Grantham.

"Oh, yes! that was when I was first lieutenant of the _Pan_,
eighteen-gun sloop, and the captain being ill below, we fell in with the
French thirty-gun frigate, _Liberte_, and instead of her taking us, as
she expected, we not only beat her off, but gave her such a drubbing,
that if we had carried as long guns as she did, we should have made her
our prize. But I'm afraid, Grantham, neither you nor I will see any
more of that fun. Well, we've had a good deal of it in our day, and
have no right to complain."

The friends, in talking over the adventures of the past, would very
likely have forgotten what Fleetwood considered the much more important
present, when they were inter