istened for some fresh sign
of the whereabouts of our scurvy neighbour. The wind had freshened a
little, and we were slipping through the water at four or five knots
an hour. Of a sudden a hoarse voice was heard roaring at our very side.
''Bout ship!' it shouted. 'Bear a hand on the lee-braces, there! Stand
by the halliards! Bear a hand, ye lazy rogues, or I'll be among ye with
my cane, with a wannion to ye!'

'It is a King's ship, sure enough, and she lies just there,' said Long
John, pointing out over the quarter. 'Merchant adventurers have
civil tongues. It's your blue-coated, gold-braided, swivel-eyed,
quarter-deckers that talk of canes. Ha! did I not tell ye!'

As he spoke, the white screen of vapour rolled up like the curtain in
a playhouse, and uncovered a stately war-ship, lying so close that we
could have thrown a biscuit aboard. Her long, lean, black hull rose
and fell with a slow, graceful rhythm, while her beautiful spars and
snow-white sails shot aloft until they were lost in the wreaths of fog
which still hung around her. Nine bright brass cannons peeped out at us
from her portholes. Above the line of hammocks, which hung like carded
wool along her bulwarks, we could see the heads of the seamen staring
down at us, and pointing us out to each other. On the high poop stood an
elderly officer with cocked hat and trim white wig, who at once whipped
up his glass and gazed at us through it.

'Ahoy, there!' he shouted, leaning over the taffrail. 'What lugger is
that?'

'The _Lucy_,' answered the mate, 'bound from Porlock Quay to Bristol
with hides and tallow. Stand ready to tack!' he added in a lower voice,
'the fog is coming down again.'

'Ye have one of the hides with the horse still in it,' cried the
officer. 'Run down under our counter. We must have a closer look at ye.'

'Aye, aye, sir!' said the mate, and putting his helm hard down the boom
swung across, and the _Maria_ darted off like a scared seabird into the
fog. Looking back there was nothing but a dim loom to show where we had
left the great vessel. We could hear, however, the hoarse shouting of
orders and the bustle of men.

'Look out for squalls, lads!' cried the mate. 'He'll let us have it
now.'

He had scarcely spoken before there were half-a-dozen throbs of flame in
the mist behind, and as many balls sung among our rigging. One cut away
the end of the yard, and left it dangling; another grazed the bowsprit,
and sent a puff of white splin