nutes passed without further questions; the steward beginning to hope the morning catechism was over, though he grumbled a wish that gentlemen would "turn out" and take a look for themselves. Now, up to this moment, Saunders knew no more than those who had just been questioning him the particular situation of the ship, in which he floated as indifferent to the whereabouts and the winds, as men sail in the earth along its orbit, without bethinking them of parallaxes, nodes, ecliptics, and solstices. Aware that it was about time for the captain to be heard, he sent a subordinate on deck, with a view to be ready to meet the usual questions from his commander. A couple of minutes were sufficient to put him au courant of the real state of things. The next door that opened was that of Paul Blunt, however, who thrust his head into the cabin, with all his dark curls in the confusion of a night scene.

"Steward!"

"Sir."

"How's the wind ?"

“Quite exhilarating, sir.”

"But, from what quarter ?"

"About south, sir."

"Is there much of it ?”

"A prewailing breeze, sir.”

"And the sloop?"

"She's to leeward, sir, operating along as fast as she can."

"Steward !"

Sir," stepping hurriedly out of his pantry,

in order to hear more distinctly.

"Under what sail are we?"

"Topgallant sails, sir."

"How's her head ?"

"West-south-west, sir."

"Delicious! Any news of the rover ?"
"Hull down to leeward, sir, and on our

quarter."

"Staggering along, eh ?”

"Quite like a disguised person, sir."

"Better still. Hurry along that breakfast of yours, sir; I'm as hungry as a Troglodyte."

The honest captain had caught this word

you can."

from a recent treatise against agrarianism, and having an acquired taste for orders in one sense, at least, he flattered himself with being what is called a Conservative; in other words, he had a strong relish for that maxim of the Scotch freebooter, which is rendered into English by the homely aphorism of "keep what you've got, and and get what A cessation of the interrogatories took place, and soon after the passengers began to appear in the cabin, one by one. As the first step is almost invariably to go on deck, especially in good weather, in a few minutes nearly all of the last night's party was again assembled in the open air, a bahn that none can appreciate but those who have experienced the pent atmosphere of a crowded vessel. The steward had rendered a faithful account of the state of the weather to the captain, who was now seen standing in the main-rigging, looking at the clouds to windward, and at the sloop-of-war to leeward, in the knowing manner of one who was making comparisons materially to the disadvantage of the latter

The day was fine, and the Montauk, bearing her canvass nobly, was, to use the steward's language, also staggering along, under everything that would draw, from her topgallantsails down, with the wind near two points forward of the beam, or on an easy bowline. As there was but little sea, her rate was quite nine knots, though varying with the force of the wind. The cruiser had certainly followed them thus far, though doubts began to be entertained whether she was in chase, or merely bound like themselves to the westward; a course common to all vessels that wish to clear the Channel, even when it is intended to go south, as the rocks and tides of the French coast are inconvenient neighbours in long nights.

"Who knows, after all, that the cutter which tried to board us," asked the captain aloud, belongs to the ship to leeward ?"

66

"I know the boat, sir," answered the second mate; "and the ship is the Foam."

"Let her foam away, then, if she wishes to

speak us. Has any one tried her bearings, since daylight?"

"We set her by the compass at six o'clock, sir, and she has not varied her bearing, as far as from one belaying pin to another, in three hours; but her hull rises fast: you can now make out her ports, and at daylight the bottom of her courses dipped."

'Ay, ay, she is a light-going Foam, then! If that is the case, she will be alongside of us by night."

"In which event, captain, you will be obliged to give him a broadside of Vattel," threw in John Effingham in his cool sarcastic

manner.

"If that will answer his errand, he is welcome to as much as he can carry. I begin to doubt, gentlemen, whether this fellow be not in earnest in which case you may have an opportunity of witnessing how ships are handled when seamen have their management. I have no objection to setting the experience of a poor come-and-go sort of a fellow, like my