riding happening to
bolt at the moment, the joker had too much to do in taking care of his
own valuable carcass to have much time to growl at us.

The lieutenant, though, did not forget the incident: for, on Mick
chancing to trip over one of his legs as he sat on the grass while
handing him a plate of salad, the pleasant gentleman called him as many
names as some of the watermen at Point are in the habit of using when
they are put out of temper by being cheated of a fare.

"Bedad, Tom," whispered Mick to me, when he got out of range of the
lieutenant's grapeshot, and we were having a feed ourselves in a quiet
corner, "Oi wush thet blissid ould baist he wor roidin' hed run away wid
him, sure, over the cliff an' made an ind ov the spalpeen! Faith, it
isn't mesilf thet wud cry me oyes out, or wear mournin' fur him!"

On leaving Madeira, which we did with much regret, the people being very
hospitable and most good-naturedly disposed towards all sailors,
especially to British bluejackets, we fetched a compass for Teneriffe,
where we arrived some three or four days afterwards; the commodore
occupying the additional time in exercising the ships under his command,
and matching them one against another.

In sailing on a wind the _Active_, I'm glad to say, beat all the rest of
the squadron; though, in running before the wind, the little _Ruby_
weathered on us and the _Volage_, our sister ship, ran us pretty close.

When nearing Teneriffe and close in to the African coast, we saw a
splendid tight in the sea, between a big black whale on the one side,
and a `thrasher' or fox-shark on the other, aided by a swordfish, with
which latter he had just apparently struck up an alliance offensive and
defensive for the time.

The thrasher, which has a back as elastic as an india-rubber ball, would
jump clean out of the water and give the whale a whack in the ribs that
must have taken all the elasticity out of him; and then, on the poor
leviathan of the deep fluking his tail to dive so as to escape from his
aerial antagonist, his chum the swordfish would tickle up the whale from
below by sending a yard or two of his long saw-like snout into his
tenderest part.

Presently, as we luffed up to see the end of the fun, the sea in the
vicinity of the fray became tinged with blood, the colour of carmine,
showing that somebody at all events was having a bad time of it.

"By the powers, it bates Bannagher," cried Mick, who was watching the
f