m. And the sound of my own name pricked me up to
listen sharply with my one good ear. You must bear in mind, Rector,
that I could not see them, and durst not get up to peep over the
quarter-rail, for fear of scaring them. But I was wearing a short
hanger, like a middy's dirk--the one I always carry in the battery."

"I made Adam promise, before he went to London," Mrs. Stubbard explained
to Mrs. Twemlow, "that he would never walk the streets without steel or
firearms. Portsmouth is a very wicked place indeed, but a garden of Eden
compared with London."

"Well, sir," continued Captain Stubbard, "the first thing I heard those
Frenchmen say was: 'Stoobar is a stupid beast, like the ox that takes
the prize up here, except that he has no claim to good looks, but the
contrary--wholly the contrary.' Mrs. Stubbard, I beg you to preserve
your temper; you have heard others say it, and you should now despise
such falsehoods. 'But the ox has his horns, and Stoobar has none. For
all his great guns there is not one little cup of powder.' The villains
laughed at this, as a very fine joke, and you may well suppose that I
almost boiled over. 'You have then the command of this beast Stoobar?'
the other fellow asked him, as if I were a jackass. 'How then have you
so very well obtained it?' 'In a manner the most simple. Our chief has
him by the head and heels: by the head, by being over him; and by the
heels, because nothing can come in the rear without his knowledge.
Behold! you have all.' 'It is very good,' the other villain answered;
'but when is it to be, my most admirable Charron?--how much longer?--how
many months?' 'Behold my fingers,' said the one who had abused me; 'I
put these into those, and then you know. It would have been already,
except for the business that you have been employed upon in this black
hole. Hippolyte, you have done well, though crookedly; but all is
straight for the native land. You have made this Government appear more
treacherous in the eyes of France and Europe than our own is, and you
have given a good jump to his instep for the saddle. But all this throws
us back. I am tired of tricks; I want fighting; though I find them
quite a jolly people.' 'I don't,' said the other, who was clearly a low
scoundrel, for his voice was enough to settle that; 'I hate them; they
are of thick head and thick hand, and would come in sabots to catch
their enemy asleep. And now there is no chance to entangle any more.
Their Go