in Hood furnished me. The skipper kept me with him
for more than two hours--in fact until he had satisfied himself that I
not only thoroughly understood what was required of me--which was very
simple, being merely to find an individual, who was to be identified by
certain pre-arranged tokens, and to deliver my despatches, or whatever
they were, into his hands--but also that I had mastered every scrap of
information which he was able to give me. When at length he found that
I was fully "posted up," he dismissed me to make my preparations,
cautioning me to dress in plain clothes, and to exercise the utmost care
that I carried no document or article of any description with me whereby
I might be identified as belonging to the English service, "otherwise,"
he grimly observed, "they will hang you without hesitation on the
nearest tree. One thing more," he continued, as I rose to leave the
cabin; "as soon as you are landed, we shall proceed in search of
Commodore Linzee's squadron, which we are ordered to join; it is
therefore quite uncertain when you may have an opportunity to return to
the ship; but as I have reason to believe we shall operate somewhere at
the northern end of the island, as soon as you have accomplished your
mission you had better make for either Calvi or Bastia, and when you can
learn our actual whereabouts, seize the first opportunity which offers
to rejoin. Here," handing me a packet, "is a sufficient amount of
Fwench money to cawwy you handsomely thwough the business if no hitch
occurs; if it does, you must exercise your ingenuity to get yourself out
of the difficulty. Now go away and get weady, and--ah--er--I heartily
wish you success. Good-bye."

He offered me his hand--with just the slightest perceptible touch of
stiffness in the gesture--which I seized and shook so heartily in the
excitement of the moment as to cause him to raise his eyebrows in
astonishment at my audacity. The next minute I was on deck once more,
with the cool night-air fanning my flushed and burning cheeks, while it
urged the frigate through the water at a rate of about seven knots
toward the lights of Ajaccio, which glimmered on the horizon broad on
our starboard bow.

CHAPTER ELEVEN.

THE ROAD TO AJACCIO.

My descent to the midshipmen's berth for the purpose of making my few
preparations was the signal for a general fusillade of questions from my
inquisitive messmates as to the why and wherefore of my summons to th