"I hope you will, Tom," cried I, as I wrung his hand at the gangway, parting company at the same time with the rest of my old messmates, who had not yet passed through the course of the training-ship, all of whom gathered round to see the last of me. "I promise you, old chap, I sha'n't have any other chum if you don't come with me!" With these words, I ran down the ladderway; and, the next moment, was seated with three other cadets, who were leaving like myself to go afloat, in the sternsheets of the second cutter. This last had been detailed by the commander to take us off to the _Candahar_; then lying alongside the old _Blake_ hulk and moored in the stream, about midway between the Sheer Jetty and the King's Stairs, where she was "fitting out for sea" as speedily as possible, the authorities having urged the utmost haste in her preparation. "Shove off!" sang out the coxswain; and, impelled by her twelve oars, that were manned by as many pairs of stalwart arms, the boat sprang through the water. The last sound I heard, beyond the wash of the tide against the side of the cutter and the subdued breathing of the men pulling, was little Tom Mills' voice in the distance shouting until I got out of earshot, "Good-bye, Jack, old fellow, good-bye!" CHAPTER SIX. ON BOARD THE OLD "CANDAHAR." "In bows!" cried the coxswain of the cutter as we neared the starboard side of the old hulk to which the _Candahar_ was lashed; and, the next minute, when close up to the foot of the accommodation ladder, the same functionary shouted the usual orders on approaching to board a ship. "Way enough. Oars!" The oars were at once tossed, while the bowman gripped a projecting ringbolt in the side of the hulk with his boathook to hold on by; and the other cadets and myself, jumping out on to the ladderway, made our way nimbly enough up to the deck of the mastless _Blake_, passing over her by a gangway to the _Candahar_ that lay on her further side. Here all was apparent confusion, stores of all sorts being hoisted in by a derrick amidships from the dockyard lighters alongside and struck down the main hatchway, while ropes and tackle of every description lumbered the upper deck fore and aft. Groups of men, clad in dirty overalls, were busy setting up the rigging and getting the yards into position; and hoarse orders were shouted ever and anon, followed by the shrill pipe of the boatswain's whistle and the steady tramp of the hands as they walked round with the capstan and swayed the heavy spars aloft, or hauled away at the gantlines and steadying guys and purchase falls and other tackle. The commander, the presiding spirit of the scene, if a smart officer, has never a better opportunity for showing his smartness than when a ship is fitting for sea; all the burthen of the work then falls upon his shoulders, for he has to be here and there and everywhere, directing a hundred different jobs at one and the same time.