"Bother! I wish I hadn't asked leave to go. I should have been comfortably asleep by now." He had hardly thought this when there was a quick movement behind him, and simultaneously he caught sight of a dim light off the starboard-bow. An order was given in a low tone, and with a silence and method learned on board a man-of-war, the boat's crew, followed by their officers, took their places in the cutter, and in obedience to another command the boat was lowered down, kissed the water, the hooks were withdrawn, she was pushed off, the oars fell on either side, and away they glided over the dancing waters in the direction of the distant light. "Now we are off, Fitz," said the lieutenant eagerly, speaking almost in a whisper, but without the slightest necessity, for the light was far away. "Yes, sir, now we are off," replied the boy, almost resentfully, and his tone suggested that he would have liked to say, Why can't you tell me where we are going? Possibly the officer took it in this light, for he continued-- "This ought to be a bit of excitement for you, Burnett. We are after a schooner bound for somewhere south, laden with contraband of war." "War, sir?" whispered the lad excitedly. "Well, some petty Central American squabble; and the captain has had instructions that this schooner is going to steal out of port to-night. Some one informed. We got the information yesterday." "Contraband, sir?" "Yes; guns and ammunition which ought not to be allowed to be shipped from an English port against a friendly state.--Give way, my men!" The rowers responded by making their stout ashen blades bend, and the cutter went forward in jerks through the rather choppy sea. "Then we shall take the schooner, sir?" "Yes, my lad, if we can." "Then that means prize-money." "Why, Burnett, are you as avaricious as that?" "No, sir; no, sir; I was thinking about the men." "Oh, that's right. But don't count your chickens before they are hatched." "No, sir." "We mayn't be able to board that vessel, and if we do, possibly it isn't the one we want. It's fifty to one it isn't. Or it may be anything-- some trading brig or another going down south." "Of course, sir. There are so many that pass." "At the same time it may be the one we want." "Yes, sir." "And then we shall be in luck." "Yes, sir." "They must surrender to our armed boat." Fitz Burnett had had little experience of the sea, but none as connected with an excursion in a boat on a dark night, to board a vessel whose sailing light could be seen in the distance. They had not gone far before the lieutenant tabooed all talking. "Still as you can, my lads," he said. "Sound travels far over the sea, and lights are very deceptive."