r Dabchick," he called out, "I'm going to cast you off, and you will
pull straight for the shore and capture those dhows as best you can,
while I will cover your advance with the guns of the ship. Recollect,
you are in command of the expedition and that Mr Doyle in the cutter,
and Mr Chisholm in the whaler, are under your orders; so, you can do as
you think best when you get alongside them. I would divide my forces,
Dabchick, if I were you; but, you must exercise your own judgment when
the time comes!"

"Aye, aye, sir," replied the lieutenant, as heartily as if he had just
been told he was made `first luff' of the flagship--for, though sleepy
sometimes when on watch of a night, he was a plucky little chap, with a
lot of go in him; and then, as our painter was sent adrift and the slack
hauled in by the bowmen, he sang out to us, "Oars! Off we go, my lads!"

This was the signal for a ringing cheer from all hands in our boat, as
well as from those in the second cutter and whaler, which had been
likewise cast off from the tow-rope; while `old Hankey Pankey' himself
jumped up into the rigging of the _Mermaid_ as we started away, and led
a return cheer from the ship as the three of us raced in line abreast
towards the dhows inshore.

The sun was now well up in the sky, and it was blazing hot over our
heads, but I don't think a man of us minded this, as we pulled away,
like Britons, and as lightheartedly as some of us used to do in the old
days when we belonged to the _Saint Vincent_, and were struggling our
best to be the first boat at our summer breaking-up sports so as to win
the Admiralty medal!

But, there was something more than a medal at stake now, aye, or a money
prize either; for we were battling, as we all well knew, mere lads
though most of us were, for our Queen--God bless her!--and that country
whose flag waves over every sea, and on whose dominions, stretching from
east to west all round the globe, the sun never sets!

Nearer and nearer we got into the coast, all hands pulling with a will;
Larrikins, who was stroke, giving the fellows a touch of his old style
when he rowed in the captain's gig of the training-ship; the whaler,
with the middy in command, running us hard, though, and the second
cutter labouring up astern.

As we approached the dhows, however, Mr Dabchick ordered us to pull
easy, singing out to the other boats to spread out to leeward and make
for the batilla, which had remained behind lik