What the lieutenant said in reply to this complimentary allusion to my whilom comrades of the _Illustrious_, and the system of instruction pursued on board that vessel, I cannot tell, for I was out of earshot, hastening forward as speedily as I could, so as to deserve the good opinion the commander seemed to have already formed of me. This, I may here add, I succeeded in doing; for, I made my reappearance on the quarter-deck in a brace of shakes, with the boatswain in person and a party of topmen bringing aft the respective "purchases" the commander had specified--blocks and strops and running gear of all sorts, all ready for instant service. "Mr Hawser," said Commander Nesbitt to the boatswain as we got near, giving me a kindly nod to express his approval of my having carried out his orders so promptly, "I must have that main-tops'l yard up before you pipe to dinner." "Very good, sir," replied the warrant officer, touching his cap again, as he had done when approaching the sacred precincts of the quarter-deck. "The spar, sir, is fitted all right for going up; but, sir, it's getting on now for Seven Bells." "I don't care what the time is, bosun; it's got to be done, and that's the long and the short of it," retorted the commander sharply, flashing his eyes in a way that showed he was not to be put off when he had once made up his mind. "Maintop, there!" "Ay, ay, sir," answered the captain of the top, looking over the rail instantly and leaving off the work of fitting the upper standing rigging, on which he and his men were engaged when this vigorous hail reached the top, thundered out with all the power of the commander's lungs. "Want me down, sir?" "Down? No, my man; but lower a whip at once for the sail burton, and you can lower the tops'l tye as well. I'm going to send up the yard at once!" "Ay, ay, sir." Promptitude begets like promptness. Before you could say "Jack Robinson," the whip was down and the purchase in the top; then, the standing part of the tackle was made fast to the yard pendant and the spar swayed up, as the men walked away with the fall, which was rove through a snatchblock hooked on to a ringbolt fixed in the deck and led to the capstan. Ere a quarter-of-an-hour had elapsed, the yard was slung and firmly secured, with the halliards and braces rigged in proper fashion. In the middle of the operation, however, the attention of the hard-worked commander was called in another direction. A fat, heavy, seafaring-looking man in a short pilot jacket came up to him as he was uttering rapid commands to the sailors aloft in stentorian accents from the poop-rail.