ook among the Roccas--has been brought to Port Royal, and
that we are putting a new foremast in her and converting her into a
topsail schooner?"

"No, sir, I have not," I replied. "Indeed I have heard _nothing_ in
connection with naval matters, for I have not yet been as far as
Kingston."

"Umph! Well, we _are_ doing so," he said. "How do you think the change
will affect her?"

"I believe it will be a great improvement. All that heavy gear forward
must, I am sure, have been detrimental to her sailing powers, especially
in a sea-way."

"To be sure it was. Couldn't have been otherwise. Then you approve of
the change?"

"Yes, sir, certainly," I replied, wondering why on earth so great a
personage should attach any importance to the opinion of a midshipman.

"Ah! I am glad of that," returned the admiral; "because, since you have
expressed a wish to go to sea again, the idea has come into my head to
give her to you--that is to say, until the `Astarte' comes in again."

I murmured something--I hardly knew what--by way of thanks, to which the
admiral kindly replied,--

"There, there; don't say a word about it, my dear boy. Annesley has
told me all about you, and if the half of what he says be true, I know
of no one who is better fitted for the trust than yourself. Besides, I
have really nobody else to place in charge. If you feel well enough,
you had better run down on board in the course of a day or two, and see
how matters are going on. Now come away into the other room and have
some lunch."

On the following morning, directly after breakfast, I started in Mr
Finnie's ketureen for Kingston, and, reaching the wharf about noon,
chartered that fast-sailing clipper, the "Fly-by-night," to convey me to
Port Royal. The jabber of the black boatmen and the exhilarating
sensation of being once more afloat had quite a tonic effect upon my
spirits, which rose higher and higher as we tore down past the
Palisades, the boat careening gunwale-to, with the hissing, sparkling
foam seething past and trailing away in a long wake astern.

When I got on board the "Juanita," I found that they had just stepped
the foremast, and a most beautiful spar it was, without a knot in it,
and as straight as a ray of light.

Fisher, the dockyard foreman, was on board, superintending operations,
and from him I learned that it was intended to make some slight
alterations in the armament of the craft; for, whereas when captured she
ca