orm, and there
was an unmistakable air of conscious authority about him that showed him
to be no stranger to control, or the position which he filled. The hair,
escaping in glossy curls from beneath his hat, added to a set of very
regular features a fine effect, while a clear, full blue eye, and an
open, ingenuous expression of countenance, told of manliness of heart
and chivalric hardihood of character. Exposure to the elements had
bronzed his skin, but there were no wrinkles there, and Captain Will
Ratlin could not have seen more than two and twenty years, though most
of them had doubtless been passed upon the ocean, for his well-knit form
showed him to be one thoroughly inured to service.

"She does her work daintily, Captain Ratlin," said he who was evidently
an officer, and who had been standing by the mainmast, but now walked
aft.

"Yes, Mr. Faulkner, 'daintily' is the word. I wish our beauty could be a
little more spunky, time is money in our business, sir," was the prompt
reply.

"But the willing craft does all she can, sir."

"I don't know, Mr. Faulkner, we can make her do almost anything."

"But talk," added the mate.

"Ay, she will do that in her own way, and eloquently, too," continued
his superior.

"In coming out of Matanzas, when you made her back and fill like a
saddle horse, I thought she was little less than a human being," said
the mate, honestly.

"She minds her helm like a beauty, and feels the slightest pull upon her
sheets."

"I never saw a vessel lie closer to the wind," said the mate; "she eats
right into it, and yet has not shaken a foot of canvass this half hour."

"That is well."

"It's uncommon, sir," continued the other.

"She must and can do better, though," said the young commander, with an
air of slight impatience. "Call the watch below, Mr. Faulkner, we will
treat our mistress to a new dress this bright day, and flatter her pride
a little; she is of the coquette school, and will bear a little
dalliance."

"Ay, ay, sir," responded the officer, without further parley, walking
forward to the fore hatch, and with a few quick blows with a handspike,
and a clear call, he summoned that portion of the crew whose hours of
release from duty permitted them below. The signal rang sharply through
the ship, and caused an instant response.

A score of dark forms issued forth from the forecastle, embracing
representatives from nearly half the nations of the globe; but they were
stur