“Well, Master Mark, I congratulate you with all my heart,” said Captain Jasper Crane, when the youth told him that he had stood the first test, and crossed the rubicon of his hopes and fears.

The two sons of the skipper also offered their congratulations in their honest way, and the skipper added:

“Well, it means we must sail back alone, and that we’ll not see you for many a long day, Master Mark?”

“Not until my graduation leave, Captain Crane, unless business may call you to this port or Baltimore some time, when you must surely give me a call.”

“You won’t be too proud to wish to see an old coast skipper, then, after you get your brass buttons on?” said the skipper slyly.

“If I thought becoming an officer of the navy would change my nature so as to make me forget old friends, captain, I’d go back with you now and stick to the life I have been always leading at home. No, my nature won’t change, I assure you; but I hope the schooner will earn a fair livelihood for you and mother, for I hope to have her run on here with old Peggy some day to see me, as I know she will wish to do.”

“I know she will, and I’ll make the schooner pay every dollar she can; but there was a sailor here to see you, Master Mark, and yonder comes a boat, and I guess he’s coming back, for he said he would, as he wished to see you.”

Mark turned to the gangway as the boat ran alongside, and called out heartily:

“Jack Judson, my sailor friend of B——, how are you?”

The sailor grasped the extended hand, and said, warmly:

“Well, Master Mark Merrill, and glad to see you again. I recognized you at the helm of the schooner as she ran in, and I never saw a craft better handled. Going to stay in port long, young mate?”

“I hope to remain some years, Mr. Judson, for I am launched now as a cadet midshipman,” was the smiling reply.

Jack drew himself up quickly and saluted, while he said:

“Pardon me, sir, but I did not know that, or I would no have made so bold; but I am a coxswain on the cruiser yonder, and thought I’d come over to remind you that I had not forgotten you and your plucky fight in B——.”

“And I am glad to see you, Coxswain Jack, and I have not forgotten your great kindness that day in B——, either. But let me tell you that Scott Clemmons is also a cadet.”

“Then look out for him, for he’s your foe,” blurted out Jack Judson.

“I do not believe he is over friendly,” responded Mark, while Jack said:

“I must be off, sir, for there’s a difference between us now; but I wish you success, Master Mark, and if you don’t win, I’ll be mistaken in my calculations.”

The coxswain saluted, when Mark again put out his hand and said:

“Good-by, coxswain, I guess we’ll often meet now.”

The boat pulled away, the coxswain very thoughtful now, for he remembered how he had once neglected his advantages and thrown away the chance of an appointment to the navy.

“I’d have been a lieutenant now, if I had gone in; but I didn’t have the grit to study, and to-day I am only a coxswain. But that youth has it in him to work his way upward, and he will; but he must keep his eye on Scott Clemmons, or he’ll foul him if he can.”

After the coxswain’s departure Mark went into the cabin, wrote his letters, one to his mother and another to Silly Sam, and he asked Captain Crane to hand the letter to the youth in person.

“I do not know if he can read or not, Captain Crane, but if he cannot, you please read it to him, and he’ll understand it. The letter to my mother I know you will deliver first, as you will run straight for Cliff Castle harbor?”

“Yes, Master Mark, and if you get time some day drop me a line to let me know how you are getting along,” said the honest skipper.

“You shall hear from me, captain, and I’ll expect you to see my mother as often as you can, for you know her home is not a cheerful one, and she has only old Peggy.”

“Yes, and more pluck than any man I know of, to dwell in that old Spook Hall.”

Then Mark bade good-by to the captain and his boys, sprang into the boat he had rowed out, and rested on his oars while the crew got up anchor and hoisted sail.

He waved his hat as they went down the Severn, Captain Crane dipping his colors to the farewell of the youth.

For a long while the young sailor watched the retreating vessel, then rowed ashore, and returned the boat to where he had gotten it.

He sighed as he cast another lingering glance after the little Venture, returning to the weird old home and scenes he had loved so well, and murmured to himself:

“There goes the last link to bind me with my life of the past few years. Now my career is to be so different! The struggle begins—my hard fight for fame. But I will win. I cannot afford not to do so, for Scott Clemmons shall never rejoice over my failure.”

“Ah, Merrill, all broken up, I see, at parting with your fisher friends—strange that you did not stick to the low life that suited you so well.”

It was Scott Clemmons, and Mark felt as though he would like to have struck him to the earth.

But instead he said, calmly:

“I have shaken hands with the past life, Clemmons, and when I leave this academy you will be behind me!”

“Never! mark my words, never!” and Scott Clemmons uttered an oath at Mark’s threat to leave him behind in the race for honors.