"After breakfast-time the breeze freshened again, and the ship had evidently perceived us, as well as the fact of our having hauled on a wind to make up with her course; for we could see her hoisting out one stunsail after another to the lee-side, and keeping off in order to give them full play. This was what I was afraid of, in fact, that our looking her way in the circumstances would make her show her heels; and being hull down, almost dead to windward of us, with her spread of sail to such a breeze as the present, it was like to be a troublesome matter ere we got within signalling distance; especially if she had kept hold of her wind a little more, instead of falling off before it as she did, which tended the schooner always steadily to weather upon her, the sharper we kept her nose to the sun in the spray. Indeed, the wind during the forenoon came gradually round more in our favour, till it stood south-east by east or so; by which time, however, we had dropped her topsails from the deck, then her to'gallant-sails, to a white speck far down on the lee-bow. We weathered fast upon her, and I fancied I made out the yellow India patches in her canvas; when, on turning about, I caught Jones's glance at me, as if he couldn't understand my eagerness, or else had got curious what the schooner wanted with the ship at all. 'She loses, I think, sir,' said he looking off to her again. 'Little doubt of that, Mr Jones,' said I. 'I know that Indiaman's sailing to a tee—but we shan't overhaul her at this rate an hour too soon, before she might have a chance of dropping us in the dark, or our running to leeward of her again.' 'Why, yes,' said Jones, carelessly, 'if they knew how to do it, sir.' 'By George! Mr Collins,' exclaimed Snelling, 'I see her stern-gallery sparkling in the run of the surges.'

"In a little while we could notice her canvas darken slowly from the courses to the to'gallant-sails, leaving the royals and studding-sails whiter than before: they were wetting her sails. 'She must take us for something bad, Lieutenant Collins!' remarked Jones, as if the thing were at all doubtful. 'A pirate, in fact,' added the reefer, with a grin. 'Why, sir,' said he, 'these Company's men seem to think the sea swarms with pirates, though I'm blessed if we've been so lucky as to sight even the tail-feather of one—my eye! though, how the griffins must be skipping about just now!'

"The truth was, the nearer we got, the more it struck me that, altered as the schooner was aloft, our red streak and lead-coloured sides were just as the first time I saw them; which wouldn't do much toward settling the Indiaman's doubts of us, for they couldn't fail to remember her the moment our hull came in sight; and as for my own character all along aboard the Seringapatam, why, neither first nor last did it seem to stand in good odour. 'Mr Jones,' said I, as we slipped quietly through the water, 'have you got any old canvas at hand, sir?—be so good as have it ripped up in lengths, and fast clapped outside from stem to stern along that red streak of ours, up as far as the plank sheer, missing the ports—give her a good broad white stripe, sir, instead!' 'Ay, ay, sir!' answered he, with a gleam in his eye as he turned off, half knowing, half in surprise. 'And, Mr Snelling,' continued I, 'hark ye, see all the hammocks stowed over the bulwarks in her waist—and run both those long-guns forward, chock in to the eyes of her, to bring her down by the head a little—keep the men on the foc'sle too—she looks rather rakish at present, I must confess!'

"All this the young gentleman seemed to do with as rueful a look as if he were putting knee-breeches and gaiters in place of white ducks, on his own lower timbers; and presently he came aft to ask if he mightn't stick a shot into each of the guns. 'What for?' said I. 'Oh,' said the midshipman, 'won't she show fight at all, sir, then?' Just then the white range of the Indiaman's heavy quarter-gallery came into view, then the bulge of her big hulking body half on to us, with a port-lid or two raised in the white band: we were to windward of her already, stealing up on her quarter. 'My eye!' said Snelling, 'she could blow us out of water, if she choose, Mr Collins, and only had pluck enough.' 'Why, that's all you know about it, Mr Snelling,' said I, with a laugh, 'since she don't carry long muzzles in her side, and in a light breeze like this we could—however, as we happen to be friends, that's of no moment, Mr Snelling.' 'After all, though,' I added, 'you may load once, and stand by to fire across her course, if required; but, for the life of you, Snelling,' said I, seriously, 'in any case, if I give the word to fire, don't let anything in the shape of iron go near that ship's hull! By Jove! sir, I'd let her blow us out of the water first, or else show her our heels, myself!'

"Well, about four in the afternoon, there we were coming down actually on the ship's quarter, from windward; when we took in our flying-kites, clued up gaff and fore-topsails, and to'gallant-sail, leaving St George's flag fluttering bright at the main-peak, and our long coach-whip streaming from the mast-head, while she kept gliding easily ahead under nothing but the two boom-sails and large jib. Still the Indiaman gave no other sign except showing the British ensign, then her striped Company's flag under it, at the mizzen-peak: she went jogging steadily on, as I was afraid she would, like a fellow giving you the go-by in the street. 'Nothing else for it, after all, Mr Snelling,' said I, walking forward, as we got within long range. 'The confounded fools!' I couldn't help saying, 'do they think a piratical craft would give herself the trouble of hoisting all the flags in Christendom one after the other, and she, of course, with a long-Tom on a pivot amidships? Mr Jones, oblige me by pitching a shot right across her forefoot?' Jones stepped forward, had the gun slued, and blew the match. 'Are you ready?' said I—'now mind your eye—fire!' and the ball went spinning from the top of one swell to another beyond the Indiaman's bows, rather wide of the mark, as I thought: when, all at once, the smoke had scarce cleared away betwixt us ere I saw her jib-sheets fly, and the Indiaman luffing up in the wind. Jones started, as almost next moment we could see the spritsail-yard hanging in two across the spars—I must say, rather to my own surprise, in spite of a good deal of old cruising practice.

"'A good aim, sir!' remarked he, turning round. 'There goes her main-yard, now!' said Snelling; and she seemed to be heaving-to, when the mainsail filled again, and on she stood as before; then actually broached-to, all aback, and gathering stern-way with her bows fairly facing us; while the black figure-head under the bowsprit showed me his turban again once more, like a fellow leaning over a horse he couldn't manage. 'What the mischief are the lubbers about!' I said, 'can't they heave-to at once and be done with it, now that I fancy they see their mistake?'

"Here Jones, who had got aft and stood up on the taffrail, jumped down again all at once, and met me at the capstan. 'Lieutenant Collins,' said he in a low voice, and looking me straight in the face with a very queer expression, 'the ship has struck!' 'Struck!' repeated I, starting; and he, Snelling, and I sprang to the taffrail together. There was the Indiaman, in fact, at length heaving into the wind, about three-quarters of a mile off our lee-beam, with her two ensigns hauled down, and something flying instead of them at the gaff-end, which I couldn't make out. Our helm was put up, and the schooner edged swiftly down to her, slipping along in sight of her stretch of bulwarks till we had hove-to abreast of her starboard bow.

'What ship is that?' hailed I from abaft, as we ran past in the shadow of her sails; and I saw my gentleman 'first officer,' Finch, standing up in her mizzen-chains with the trumpet, more dashing than ever, as he had poor Captain Williamson's uniform coat and hat on, apparently, and a sword by his side: her whole quarter-bulwark bristling with spy-glasses and gun-barrels turned upon the schooner, though not another head could be seen. 'The Honourable East In——' began Finch; but that moment there was a perfect hubbub of cries and cheers, as a dozen faces I knew well showed themselves popping up from the quarter-deck: Old Rollock in a huge straw hat and his shirt-sleeves, with a ship's musket in his fists; Ford, Winterton, and the cadets—the long-faced Scotch surgeon, and Macleod's screwed nose and red whiskers—every eye fixed on me, as I fancied, not to say three or four rusty barrels. Their confusion and bewilderment was rare to witness; and being forty hands of us—the Lascars' outlandish physiognomies and all—why, the schooner must have looked rather respectable as she still slid ahead.

"In the meantime, the look of our smart Hebe's men, with the frigate's name shining in front of their regular-built hats, and everything about us, not to say the reefer's naval uniform and mine, seemed to have set the Indiaman's people more at their ease; till, when our gig's crew was ready to lower away, there was even a glimpse of ladies to be seen along toward her poop. Every moment I expected the sight of a certain face to flash on me from over the black rail, as the ship rolled and plunged in the heave of water opposite us, showing her broad white band, with the drips of rust across it from her chain-plates. 'We made somewhat of an awkward mistake, sir!' hailed Finch, eyeing me queerly enough, and trying to appear at his ease. 'So I supposed, sir,' said I; 'I shall send a boat aboard of you directly'; and I turned to the midshipman, who stood surveying the ship from stem to stern with his nose turned away from her, and his hands in the tails of his coat, speaking all the time to Mr Jones, though the latter was apparently the least interested of the two, for he had his eye seaward.

"'Mr Snelling,' said I, 'd'ye see that gentleman yonder near the main-rigging, with the black hat on? You'll go aboard in the gig, sir, give your commanding-officer's compliments to the captain of the Indiaman, and mention to him that that gentleman is wanted here—Westwood his name is.'

"To tell you the truth, my head was in a perfect whirl at knowing that, if I chose, five minutes could set me within speaking distance of Violet—yet you'd scarce believe I actually almost made up my mind not to go on deck again till our sheets were hauled aft, and we leaving the ship astern. Bless your heart! I wasn't aware till that minute what I felt for her; everything about the voyage from Portsmouth came back so fresh on me, at sight of the different parts about the old Seringapatam's bulwarks, to the very odds-and-ends of ropes hanging alongside that blessed lumbering coach-house of hers amidships, and the live-stock cackling and bleating in it between times! And there was I glancing aft into our little stern-cabins, which I fancied two or three days ago might serve for their passage. But now, though I had a pretty sharp guess these same cabins were meant originally for neither more nor less than an emperor himself, why, I saw the very notion was too ridiculous to mention! 'Mr Jones,' said I, speaking up the skylight, 'as soon as you see that passenger is in the boat, have the head sheets hauled aft, sir, and the helm put up to make sail.' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said he; but directly after, he added in a low voice, 'I believe though, sir, we are not likely to part company from this ship so soon!' 'How, sir!' exclaimed I sharply, and starting up off the chair to see him, for something in the cool, collected tone of his voice jarred on me the more on account of the state I was in myself—'what do you mean by that?' I had merely to catch sight of my mate's broad throat and hairy chin, however, as he stood with his full chest thrown back, and one hand in his waistcoat, looking aloft by the skylight, when, following his eye to our main-gaff, it was easy to know the last fanning of the wind; which, taken together with the schooner's yerking motion abaft, was sufficient to give you word of a calm. 'We have lost the breeze for to-night, at any rate, sir,' said Jones, letting his eyes suddenly fall upon me, and meeting the flicker of pleasure I couldn't help showing on my face. 'Confound the thing! you don't say so, Mr Jones!' rejoined I quickly. 'Then as long as she has a foot's steerage-way, sir, let her slip off the Indiaman's bow at once—else the two of us will be grinding together ere daylight like a couple of mill-stones without corn!'

"On deck there were twenty things worth noticing, that struck one at the same time. The schooner's light spars and white canvas seen sharp against the white glare of light in the west, as she settled round on the ship's other bow; while the light air high aloft in the Indiaman's royals still kept steadying her with her lee-side to the sunset, where it made a red trough along the horizon down through a golden cloud or two, that looked like bright-winged things whirling off and about the sun.

"Our gig was holding off by the boat-hook from her lee-quarter, the oars up-ended, and two or three sailors, with their heads shoved out under a port-lid on the main deck, talking to the boat's crew, while a few of the men hung over the high black top-sides, peering aft at the gig; the rest being gathered in the ship's bows, with their eyes fixed on the schooner. The huge round of the sun went down astern like the mouth of a furnace, sending a broad stream of red light across the face of the water with every wet streak and wrinkle shown heaving in it, right up to the Indiaman's white band and her pitch-black bulwarks. Her quarter-galleries lashed out, and you saw the passengers' heads aft through the red arch under the wide mainsail-foot, till every face shone crimson-bright out of the awning below; and I could see the midshipman's gold band glisten as he took his cap off to some ladies coming down the poop-stair, amidst a hubbub of cadets turning round to eye the schooner. For half-a-minute the smooth sea all astern of the ship seemed to wash to her water-line in a flood of light and blood almost, as if the horizon vanished; then the tip of the sun went down like a burning ruby, the blue heave of water sank away from the copper at the Indiaman's bows, giving us an easy lift at the other side of the swell, and the whole compass of the sea appeared to slide round cool and clear against the soft flush of all possible tints in the west; till the deep indigo hue of the calm spread melting off from both of us.

"What I gave most heed to was the knots of men's faces on the Seringapatam's forecastle, as the golden gleam of light and the red glare struck across them with all sorts of queer touches, that brought back every one of them clearly to mind at once; and, stepping forward where Mr Jones's figure was to be seen dark against the pale glow in the west, I could easily make out ugly Harry's big buffalo head, as he leant his chin on his two hands, and surveyed us up and down, with his dirty tarpaulin on the back of his head as usual, and his shaggy black hair like thatch over his forehead, almost down to the meeting of his thick eyebrows. The moment I appeared, Mister Harry Foster shifted himself with a start, looked aloft to his own ship, and began to whistle as if for wind; the same moment Jones turned and noticed me, too, and the difference of the two men's faces struck me the more, that I couldn't help thinking extremes met. 'That fellow there seems to like us so well, Mr Jones,' said I, laughing, 'that I've half a mind to bring him aboard, as I could!' 'Who—which, sir?' said the mate, looking to every part of the Indiaman but the right one. 'Why, that misbegotten-like rascal you were looking at,' said I; 'I know a little of him, and a more thorough blackguard doesn't walk planks!' 'There's the boat, though, Lieutenant Collins!' said Jones suddenly: the boat-hook struck our mizzen-chains on the other side in the dusk, and next minute Tom Westwood swung himself on board, with the midshipman and Old Rollock the planter following in his wake; the last, to my surprise, carrying two hat-boxes and an umbrella.

"'Why, Ned Collins!' broke out Westwood, 'what is the meaning of all this—what wind has blown you here?' 'My dear fellow!' shouted the planter, almost jumping on top of me, 'I never in my life saw the like of you—the very same infernal schooner, too! Come, let's hear—have you taken 'em all then, head and tail—have you——'

"'For Heaven's sake, Mr Rollock,' said I, sheering out of his way as well as I could, 'come below, sir, if I must answer all these questions!' 'So you are actually in command?' said Westwood; and hereupon I gave him the bearings of his own affair, with the fact of my falling in with Lord Frederick Bury, of course; and of all men in the world, I believe, the 'Honourable Bury' was the one Westwood could feel comfortable under, as his face showed at the time. 'Whether I lose you or not in the Hooghly, Tom,' said I, 'I daresay you'll find yourself in the end aboard the Hebe, in some shape or other! and meantime I shall be glad of you here for a first mate.' 'Well, well,' put in the planter again, impatiently, after having kept questioning me every now and then for the last ten minutes, which I answered without well knowing what he said—'then you hung him, of course?' 'Hung whom?' asked I, obliged to attend by Mr Rollock's perseverance. 'Why, El Americano, to be sure—the Yankee—Snout!' said he, trying to lengthen his face for the news. 'Hung him—no!' said I, laughing; 'when I saw him on deck there, last, he was lively enough, and anxious to get those images of his out of the Seringapatam.' The planter's rosy gills turned a shade or two paler, and he started off his seat. 'God bless me!' said he, in a low voice, and looking over his shoulder, 'you don't mean to say you've brought the man back on me. I declare to you I lost a few pounds of my weight here before, by his actually conceiving a friendship for me!' Old Rollock's dismay was so comical that I could scarce find in my heart to ease his mind, as I did.

"'Why, my dear fellow,' said Westwood, with a smile, 'I assure you that disappearance of yours took me by surprise. Indeed, I only guessed, from something Captain Finch let drop afterwards, how it came about; and till the very moment the brig-of-war got under way, I fancied you had some other plan in view, or else you never would have carried it out. The fact was, Ned, if your heart was bound for India, mine was ashore in old England, and I'd rather have run the risk to go back!' Here Tom caught my glance, and looked shyly into one waistcoat pocket, then into another, fidgeting on his chair, poor fellow! in a way that brought my sister Jane's grey eyes, and her demure little arch face, distinctly before me, thousands of miles as there were between us and Croydon. The thought of the Seringapatam being so near, on the other hand, somehow rushed on me at the same time, and I felt wonderfully mild toward Tom. 'Hang it, Tom!' said I, 'never mind thinking of it—mix your grog, man, and confound all care to the bottom of the sea. You're well off! For my part,' said I, 'I had no notion at all how that case stood, so I made a cursed mistake in the matter—but here's luck!'

"'However,' said he, 'I saw your drift by that time; and the young lady herself was in the fore-cabin when I told her father the whole story, not long after you went off. 'Twas no use with Sir Charles, though, to say you were only carrying out the joke to screen me, and amuse yourself at the same time—he was sure you were after some scheme; and all the while Miss Hyde sat sewing on the sofa behind us, as quiet and careless as if she didn't hear a word, or trouble herself about the matter. When I came upon your vanishing so suddenly in the brig, however, and said I was sure, by that time, you did so in order to let me clear off, I had my eye on the looking-glass opposite the young lady; and whatever you may make of it, Ned, I can tell you she started and glanced up at that point.' 'Well, and what of that?' I asked. But Westwood went on—'It was all one to Sir Charles, nevertheless, whatever way I turned it. According to him, this was just of a piece with the rest of your doings, which showed the bad effects of the naval service. 'Twas no use my standing up for you, saying how fast you had risen, and would rise, if you had the right thing to do—for the old gentleman allowed everything, adding it was so much the worse for such fellows to be set loose. "I tell you what, Mr Westwood," said he, looking round sharply, as if he were speaking at somebody else, "there is a soul of mischief in that young man that nothing will root out, unfitting him for everything else, however admirably it may be suited to maritime pursuits or to savage warfare. In short," added the judge, drawing himself up, "it is my conviction he will either be drowned or knocked on the head——"' 'The precious old curmudgeon!' I rapped out, betwixt laughter and rage at the thought of her hearing all this pretty character of me. '"And I must say, my young friend," said the judge, "I felt much relieved at finding Councillor Westwood's nephew so different an individual—exceedingly relieved! Besides that, you cannot, of course, continue in the navy!" Just at this moment,' continued Westwood, 'I saw the young lady gather up her work behind us with a sparkle in her eye, rise off the sofa, and walk straight aft through the cabin-door.'

"'Was that all?' said I, biting my lip. 'All, you heathen!' answered Tom, laughing. 'Why, what would you have? I'll be bound the judge didn't mean all that for my use, my dear fellow. But the worst of it was, that next day, when I met her with the Brigadier's lady on the poop, the young beauty passed me with as scornful an air as possible; and for a week or so, whenever the judge happened to ask me into the round-house cabins, either she wasn't there, or took an opportunity of walking out—the most I got was a bow or a "good-morning"; so you see the real Simon Pure didn't prosper half so well as the false one!' 'Pooh!' said I, gloomily, thinking of the little ground I had made myself, 'all contradiction—the fact is, you're too simple for women's ways, Westwood.' Westwood looked down and gave a queer smile—as much as to say, I suppose, the case stood just the contrary; and I must own, it struck me he must be rather a knowing fellow that could fathom my sister, seeing that, for my part, I understood her no more than my mother's housemaid did, with her high-flown music and poetry, and all that sort of thing.

"'However,' said Westwood, 'I contrived by degrees to get over all this, and for the last week or two we were as good acquaintances as before—in fact, the judge was evidently bent on it. And I tell you what it is, Ned, as charming a girl, in her way, as Violet Hyde I can't well fancy—but one more hopeless to deal with, for a fellow that hasn't got hold of her heart, I believe doesn't breathe! Why, young as she is, you'd feel her playing you round her pretty forefinger as a woman would, looking at you all the time under her soft eyelids with those bright eyes of hers, as if you could fancy her falling in love in a moment with someone else, but never with yourself!' 'By Jove, yes!' said I, feeling as dismal as I daresay I looked. 'Do you know,' Westwood went on, 'her figure and walk always remind me of a Hindoo girl's, all over English as her face and hair are, with a touch of the tropical, you can't say where, about it—owing to her being born in India, as I believe she was; and altogether, Ned, I'm glad to——' Here Westwood shrugged his shoulders, and I poured myself out another glass of grog in pure despair.

"'The truth is,' said I, 'I wish I had never seen that confounded Seringapatam! Didn't she say any—didn't you—in fact, Tom, what do you think of the matter, plump and plain, stem and stern?' said I manfully. 'Why,' said Tom, in a thoughtful way, 'not to set you at all wrong on either side, the thing that strikes me is, I don't think she ever once mentioned you, Ned, except in passing. But to my mind, in the circumstances, that's not so much against you. The young lady can say little when she pleases, I assure you; for only last night, in that fine moonlight, we happened to touch on that affair in the river—you know?' 'Yes,' I said, for it wasn't easy to forget. 'Now I always thought that night a turning-point with you,' Westwood said; 'and it was the last night you were aboard; so I spoke of you a good deal, and never a word did Miss Violet utter, save "Yes" and "No," while her face being in the shadow, I couldn't see it. Oh, by-the-by, though,' continued he, 'she did say one thing!'

"'For Heaven's sake, what was it?' I broke out eagerly. 'Well, then, Ned,' answered he, leaning back on the two back legs of his chair, and eyeing me with a comical air, which surprised me a little; 'do you consider yourself good-looking?' I started up. 'What do you mean by that, Tom?' said I; but next moment I sat down again with a sulky 'No, I'll be hanged if I do! so——' 'No more does your lady-love, then,' said Westwood, 'for she made the remark very coolly, and even without my asking her—but don't be down-hearted at that, my dear Ned, for I think more of that little sentence, in the way it was said, than of all she did not say!' 'The greater the difference between us, I suppose,' said I savagely. 'Why,' replied Tom, ''tis my conviction you never hear a woman say the man she likes is handsome—and from a perverse young gipsy like——' 'Well, by Jove! Westwood,' said I, losing my temper altogether, and giving the table a slap with my fist that sent my glass crash to the deck, 'you beat everything! I suppose if she'd called me a fool and a blessed lubber, you'd turn it to my favour. But the truth is, I don't understand your niceties—I want something broad and above-board, that a fellow can lay hold of—and the short and the long of it is——' With that I laid my face on my arms down in the spilt grog on the table, and fairly groaned. My head reeled till I scarce knew it was myself that was sitting there, as all of a sudden one thought after another crowded on me. Somehow I seemed for a single moment to be out and out in the open sea, the different faces I'd seen along the ship's bulwarks rushing past me, with Jones's face, and the look of the Indiaman in the sunset; through all sorts of weather, too, in that confounded moment.

"Then, I can't say why, but my hair crept as I came back to the thought of the Indiaman and the schooner in the calm at the time, and I almost fancied I heard a whisper at my ear. I looked up, and saw Tom Westwood sitting opposite me, with a musing air, and rather melancholy. The sight of my wild stare, with the grog I suppose trickling down my forehead, and dripping off my nose, appeared to startle him, and our eyes met queerly enough for half-a-minute—till all at once the notion seemed to strike both of us, of the absurdity of two fellows hobnobbing and lackadaisying away this fashion in a hole of a schooner's cabin, thousands of miles from land; and I'm blessed if we didn't both burst at the same moment into regular roars of laughter—first one broadside, then 'bout ship, as it were, to deliver the other, gun after gun. By George! though, I felt it do me good, as if something deadly went off with it. 'Hallo!' sung out the planter, blocking up the moonlight that shone misty-white down the steps of the companion, to a blue glimmer at the foot of them; 'both surviving yet, I declare'; and we felt the scent of his cheroot in the hot calm as he walked aft again.

"'Well, Ned,' said Westwood, still laughing, 'there's one thing more I did contrive to get out, and it is certainly broad enough to lay hold of, as you say. Do you know, from some hints the judge let drop in course of the passage, after he got to know me, I have a rather sharp suspicion he has someone in view for his daughter already!' At this I gasped once more. 'Whether she knows it herself or not, I'm not sure,' added Tom; 'but, very naturally, the gentleman I mean was often enough mentioned in Sir Charles's cabins—for who do you imagine, of all persons in the world, it is?'

"I made no trial at a guess, but sat eyeing Westwood in perfect silence, and he went on—'Who but—don't look so fierce, my dear fellow—just this—this said nabob of an uncle of mine, the Bengal Councillor! Why, you've no conception,' said Westwood, 'what presents of pearl necklaces, fans, cashmere shawls, and China ivory work-boxes, and so on, the Councillor must have sent home to her at different times, for the Seringapatam to bring back again. I didn't see her wear any of them; but every now and then Sir Charles would point to something that lay about, telling me it came from my uncle! He is a bachelor, you know, not so old as Sir Charles himself, who isn't so old as he looks, and they seem to be sworn friends!' 'Tuts, man!' said I, brightening a bit, 'can't you see he wants to adopt her?' 'So I should have imagined,' answered Westwood; 'but the fact is, two or three times, as I told you, Sir Charles Hyde hinted as much as that it was an idea of long standing between himself and his friend the Councillor, so——' 'The old villain!' I roared. 'Begging your pardon, Westwood—but I must say you are the pattern of a Job's comforter, and no mistake!' 'Well,' answered he, 'if you had heard the way in which the young lady mentioned my uncle to me, you wouldn't be much afraid of your rival, Ned. Why, she said she thought she remembered him when she was a little girl, bringing her Indian sweetmeats from the bazaar in his carriage—she actually supposed he must be older than her father, when the judge set her right eagerly enough—but, you must know, he no more seems able to say a sharp word to her, than Jacobs yonder would. So what did she say next, after apparently thinking a little, but that, now she recollected, my uncle used to have gray hair and white whiskers, like Mr Rollock, which for my part I knew no more about than the table, when her father broke out describing him as warmly as possible; and suddenly Miss Hyde looked at him with a little turn of her pretty lip, and a twinkle in her eye, that sent the old gentleman fiddling about his coffee-cup, and stopped him in a moment as if she had been a little witch!'

"'What's to be done, Tom?' I faltered out, after a long stop. 'I'm sure I don't know, Ned,' said he gravely; 'let's go on deck at any rate, for it's too hot here to sleep.' The moment the sight of the calm burst upon us, however, with the two vessels together in the midst of it, in the hazy sort of moonlight, the same notion seemed to strike both of us in a different way. 'I'll tell you what, Collins,' said Westwood, half-jokingly, half in earnest, 'uncle though he be, if you can contrive to cut out the Councillor anyhow, I'll forgive you, for one!' 'How, though—how, by Jove!' replied I—'if they go to Bombay in the Indiaman, by the time they reach Calcutta, I shall be in the Pacific!' ''Tis a difficult case,' said Westwood, 'no doubt. And even suppose you had the opportunity, 'twould be hard to manage an elopement ashore in India, travelling "dauk" in two palanquins. Seriously speaking, Ned, I see nothing for it but to wait till you come back from the Pacific.'

"I looked hopelessly round: the calm and heat together gave one a helpless feeling, and every notion of an active sort appeared desperate. A perfect calm it was, too: there was some filmy scum of a haze aloft, that served to spread the moonlight all over, shutting out the shape of the sky, and softening off the horizon; with the moon standing slant up in it, like a brighter spot, and a few stars low down in the east. But for the long wide tremble of the water, in fact, as it glanced up with a blue flicker, you'd have fancied we mightn't be far from land; while the big Indiaman lay off the schooner's bow, without the least motion one could see; the moonshine edging round her spars and ropes from the other side, and her sails hanging shadowy against it, except below, under her brailed-up courses, where the masts, the thick of the rigging, and the tops of her deck-lumber, glistened as if they were newly wet. Half of her watch were on the bowsprit, sending out a 'fished' spritsail-yard, the same we had set dangling about their ears that afternoon, and we could hear them speaking plain enough; every time they sang out at a haul, it went far away on all sides—ho-ho-ho-he-ho-ho-o—till you lost it in the dead calm, as if somebody had gone there. Now and then the Seringapatam made a slight plunge by the head, as the wide soft swell floated up with her; and the glossy black shadow, that seemingly gave her hull the height of a tower, came wavering in quicksilver circles to our very cutwater, while the lights from her after-windows went twisting away round her heavy counter to the moonshine, like yellow snakes; the schooner all the time lying as quiet as if she were on a pond, except that by little and little she kept shifting her bearings to the Indiaman, and things were confoundedly like our both sticking together in course of the morning, if the calm held. I went forward to the forecastle and desired Jones to get all hands down into the boats, and have her towed off to safe distance, seeing that the worst of it would be sure to fall to our share.

"This was doing, and we drew slowly off the ship's bow, where her men coolly knocked off working to watch ours, and pass jokes on our gang of Lascars, as they handled the oars in awkward style; in fact, by the way the Indiaman's watch carried on, most of them seemed to have passed the grog-can pretty freely, being Saturday night, which we could hear they were still keeping up below in the forecastle, when our quarter came abreast of her larboard bow. 'Hurrah!' said one, waving his tarpaulin; and 'Pull, you beggars!' roared another; when my old customer, ugly Harry, all at once leant out of her fore-chains, and sung out to Jones, who was next him in the stern-sheets of our gig: 'I say, mate, so ye're clearing off, are ye? The better for that 'ere nutshell of a schooner o' yours, I reckon!' Jones made no answer, and the fellow added; 'Come aboard when you've got a safe berth, anyhow, and drink "sweethearts and wives," will ye?' I saw Jones start, and turn his face fiercely into the shadow of the ship's main-course on the water, rising half-up with one fist clenched, but he said nothing. 'Oh, you're blasted proud!' Foster called out: 'you forgets a man, blow me! D'ye think I doesn't know a fellow I got glorious with myself, in old Van Stinkoff's, at Cape Town? Sink me, mates,' said he, as loud as before, turning round on the rail of the bulwarks to the rest, 'I picked him out o' the street scuppers, under the sign of the Flying Dutchman, an' I'm blowed if I didn't think it beneath me at the time!' Here the end of our main-boom opened us in sight of the ugly ruffian, and he was sinking down in-board, when I hailed the Indiaman's quarter-deck, where the Scotch mate was to be seen. 'Ay, ay, the schooner ahoay!' sung out he, coming to the gangway. 'Did you hear that man's impertinence, sir,' said I sternly, 'to my officer on duty there? I expect you to see him punished, sir.' The Scotchman said he'd inquire into it; but shortly after he came back, saying he 'doubted' he couldn't be sure of the man; and, at any rate, he could have 'meant no ill.' The boats had towed us by this time almost out of fair hearing, but Harry Foster was to be seen coolly eyeing us from the midst of his watchmates, as he slung a couple of blocks over his shoulder; when he turned away with as much indifference as if we had been a Thames collier, growling some two or three words or other that brought a loud laugh from the Indiaman's forecastle to her bowsprit, where the men were turning lazily to their business again.

"Being now clear off the ship, with the rake of her hull in our command if I chose, and free of her broadside at the same time, I hailed the boats to leave off towing and come aboard. As Jones came on deck, I saw that in his face to make me think he took the thing to heart, seeing he met my first look with his lips set together and a steady gleam of his eyes. The truth was, I never in my life came across a man that struck me so much with the notion of his having a devil in him, seeking to get the better of what was good.

"'I think we shall do, Mr Jones?' I said. 'Quite safe, sir,' said he, quietly; at that moment, standing as we did out of earshot, with the setting moon in sight past the Indiaman, shining in a rusty yellow glare to her hanging sails, 'twas strange how the odds of our different stations passed off. We were foot to foot, in fact; I was fully aware, if never before, what an enemy Jones would make—he had great daring and knowingness in him, and all on the wrong side of the hedge for me at the time, seeing I had such a ticklish part to play with the Indiaman. I caught myself, on the instant, measuring youth and activity, not to say regular breeding to the service, and a clear conscience besides, against him and his thews and sinews; but as for turning and twisting with the man before me, I saw it was the tack likely to throw him to windward of me. My voice changed, and I lowered it as I said: 'Mr Jones, I happened to sail half the voyage as a passenger in that ship, and I've no common reason to be anxious about her getting safe into port. There's one single being in her at this moment I'd willingly lose my life to save from anything like what one could fancy—ay, so help me God, suppose I'd no chance of ever setting eyes on her again!' Jones never stirred a feature, but looked past me into the gleam of the moon over my shoulder.

"'Well, Mr Jones,' I said, 'I'll acknowledge to you frankly, as from one seaman to another, the question is, Are you for me—or not?' 'We speak as man with man, it seems, Mr Collins!' said Jones quietly; 'then I am—for you!' and he struck his hand all at once into mine; 'here's a hand that never lied, whatever the tongue may have done—bad or good; I am for you, sir, and no more of it! I knew as well as if you'd told me, Mr Collins, by the looks of the passengers, that you had sailed aboard that ship in some way or other—and what's more, sir, I saw——' here he stopped, looking at me with his back to the sinking gleam of light beyond the ship's hull, from the moon as she touched the water, and I saw nothing but the shape of his head under the straw hat, with a shadow blurring his face together, though I felt him eyeing me out of it all the time—'what some would think more worth while than if you were a Spanish plate-ship,' he went on; and he lowered his voice nearly to a whisper as he added, 'I tell you what, Mr Collins, 'tis my conviction that, if you chose, you might do what you liked in the end with that Indiaman and all aboard her!' I stepped back with a shiver through me, as the sudden setting of the moon blended everything black in with Jones's shoulders, leaving his head instead of her against a glimmer of light, till for a moment it seemed peering at me off the horizon with the whole lump of shadow betwixt the two craft for a body; and I must say I thought of old stories about the Tempter in human form. 'Devil!' said I hoarsely, while the last gleam to westward went out, and it got so dark I could have fancied Jones had vanished from the bulwarks without stirring a foot; in fact, on my moving to the place I touched the cool planks with my hand—he was actually gone! Nothing was visible beyond our own decks, save a slight glimmer such as one would make in sculling with a single oar; and I saw at once he had taken the small boat alongside to go aboard the Indiaman! All the rest was that thick heavy darkness only to be found in a calm in the Indian Ocean, towards morning: you may not only say you see it, but could stir it, as it were, with a stick.

"A horrid notion of Jones's purpose crept through my mind at first; but on second thoughts I easily saw this wasn't the occasion for him to choose, if he had really meant ill, and accordingly there was more the reason to trust him. Indeed, as I stood listening and watching, after Westwood and the planter went below, the Indiaman's binnacle lamp seemed to go slowly out, while at the same time the sound of her watch speaking on the forecastle apparently got distincter, till I could hear them clear of the ship's hull and rigging, like low voices muttering in the air betwixt her and us. 'Twas only her having sheered gradually bow-on to the schooner again, however, as a calm near the equator has always something like a pulse in it—but it struck me there were men out on her jib-boom, which being of course the very privatest part of any in a ship for talk—why, to find more than one going out there, of a dark night, and with no work to do, never looks otherwise than suspicious. Nothing of this kind surprised me at present in the Seringapatam, with the opinion I had of her; but the curious thing was, that the fellows must have supposed it the farthest point they could get out of sight of us, as well as from their own decks, she having had her beam to the schooner when the moon set.

"The desperate feelings that steal upon a man in such a case, and the fearful notions that breed in his head, with the quickness of his senses and the way he holds on by a single rope, you can scarcely conceive, though if a cry had come from the Indiaman at that moment I daresay I should have sprung in head foremost to get to her, when all at once, from up in the air again, I thought I heard the smart click of a flint and steel; at any rate, I saw the sparks showering from it in the midst of the black space before me—even the pair of fists as they knocked together, then a mouth blowing the match, till there was a light in a lantern between four heads leaning towards each other over the spar. Queer enough it would have been to see, in ordinary circumstances, but you'll readily fancy what a thing it looked all of a sudden, right out in the midst of the pitch-black night, one didn't know how or where—in fact, two of them faced each other in the stream of light from one side of the lantern, like the two edges of a rent in the dark, and another was like a sprawling blot in the centre—you just saw they were faces and heads, with a foot or two of the thick round boom slanting up betwixt them; but as for their bodies, they were all of a piece with the perfect blackness beyond. I could see one of them hold up the lantern and pass it round the three others' faces, bringing out their chins and noses, as if to be sure who they were—a piece of caution which served almost equally well for me, for I remembered each of them by headmark amongst the crew, only I didn't see the said fellow himself, even when he drew out some paper or other in one hand, seemingly unfolded it with the help of his teeth, and spread it over the jib-boom under the lantern, whereupon the whole four of the heads drew close together in a black lump round the light, peering down upon the paper, and muttering away as much at their ease, no doubt, as if they'd been in a tap-room. All I wished for was a good rifle-barrel in my hand at the time, to have knocked the light out from the midst of them, and sent the bullet by accident through the tarpaulin hat behind it—especially when a glaring red flipper was shoved out on the white paper, and the thumb planted steadily on a particular spot. All at once, however, the light was put out in the lantern, and I heard them going in-board, as the noise of the morning watch being called, at four o'clock, got up round the forehatchway.