ould it be, then, if you sent me word in good time in the morning?
Or, no--look here, old fellow--I shall know when there is rain on the
moor, and I'll come round in this direction from the port. I'm cruising
about the Channel training a lot of men. You hoist a couple of flags on
the staff some morning, and that evening at dusk I'll land a couple of
boats' crews, and have them marched up here to lay up with you and turn
the tables upon the rascals. How will that do?"

Solly forgot discipline, and bent down to give one of his legs a
tremendous slap, while his master made the breakfast things dance from
his vigorous bang on the table.

"There, Nic," he cried triumphantly; "what did I say? Jack Lawrence was
always ready to show the way when we were on our beam-ends. Jack, my
dear old messmate," he cried heartily, as he stretched out his
hand--"your fist."

CHAPTER SEVEN.

THE CAPTAIN WILL "WHERRIT."

Captain Lawrence spent the day at the Point, thoroughly enjoying a long
gossip, and, after an early dinner, proposed a walk around the grounds
and a look at the river and the pool.

"What a lovely spot it is!" he said, as he wandered about the side of
the combe. "I must have such a place as this when I give up the sea."

"There isn't such a place, Jack," said Captain Revel proudly. "But I
want you to look round the pool.--I don't think I'll climb down, Nic.
It's rather hot; and I'll sit down on the stone for a few minutes while
you two plan where you could ambush the men."

"Right," said Captain Lawrence; and he actively followed Nic, pausing
here and there, till they had descended to where the fall just splashed
gently down into the clear pool, whose bigger stones about the bottom
were now half-bare.

"Lovely place this, Nic, my boy. I could sit down here and doze away
the rest of my days. But what a pity it is that your father worries
himself so about these poaching scoundrels! Can't you wean him from it?
Tell him, or I will, that it isn't worth the trouble. Plenty more fish
will come, and there must be a little grit in every one's wheel."

"Oh, I've tried everything, sir," replied Nic. "The fact is that he is
not so well as I should like to see him; and when he has an irritable
fit, the idea of any one trespassing and taking the fish half-maddens
him."

"Well, we must see what we can do, my boy. It ought to be stopped. A
set of idlers like this requires a severe lesson. A good dose of
capsta