a prime fellow, if you can once fasten to him, and
get him into blue water. Does your schooner go out to-morrow, Captain
Gar'ner?"

"Not till next day, I think," said Roswell Gardiner, with the frankness of
his nature, utterly free from the slightest suspicion that he was
communicating with one in the interests of rivals. "My mates have not yet
joined me, and I am short of my complement by two good hands. Had that
fellow Watson stuck by me, I would have given him a look at water that no
lead ever sounded."

"Ay, ay; he's a whiffler, but a good man on a sea-elephant. Then you think
you'll sail day a'ter to-morrow?"

"If my mates come over from the main. They wrote me yesterday that they
had got the hands, and were then on the look-out for something to get
across in. I've come out here to be ready for them, and to pick 'em up,
that they needn't go all the way up to the Harbour."

"That's a good traverse, and will save a long pull. Perhaps they are in
_that_ boat."

At this allusion to a boat, Roswell Gardiner sprang into his main rigging,
and saw, sure enough, that a boat was pulling directly towards the
schooner, coming from the main, and distant only a short half mile. A
glass was handed to him, and he was soon heard announcing cheerfully to
his men, that "Mr. Hazard and the second officer were in the boat, with
two seamen," and that he supposed they should _now_ have their complement.
All this was overheard by the skipper of the sloop, who caught each
syllable with the most eager attention.

"You'll soon be travelling south, I'm thinking, Captain Gar'ner?" called
out this worthy, again, in a sort of felicitating way--"Them's your chaps,
and they'll set you up."

"I hope so, with all my heart, for there is nothing more tiresome than
waiting when one is all ready to trip. My owner is getting to be
impatient too, and wants to see some skins in return for his dollars."

"Ay, ay, them's your chaps, and you'll be off the day a'ter to-morrow, at
the latest. Well, a good time to you, Captain Gar'ner, and a plenty of
skinning. It's a long road to travel, especially when a craft has to go as
far south as your's is bound!"

"How do you know, friend, whither I am bound? You have not asked me for my
sealing ground, nor is it usual, in our business, to be hawking it up and
down the country."

"All that is true enough, but I've a notion, notwithstanding. Now, as
you'll be off so soon, and as I shall not see you again, fo