The tears rolled down our cheeks; but not with grief. As soon as the admiral had sufficiently recovered himself to go in pursuit, we thought it time to make sail. We knew we were discovered; and as the matter could not be made worse, we resolved to tell him what it was for. Ned began,--"How do you do, admiral? you have taken a shower-bath this morning." He looked up, with his teeth clenched--"Oh, it's you, is it? Yes, I thought it could be no one else. Yes, I have had a shower-bath, and be damned to you, and that sea devil of a friend of yours. Pretty pass the service has come to, when officers of my rank are treated in this way. I'll make you both envy the tom-cat." "Beware the housekeeper, admiral," said Ned. "Maria has made it up with me, admiral, and she sends her love to you." "Damn Maria." "Oh, very well, I'll tell her so," said Ned. "Admiral," said I, "do you remember when you sent the --- to sea in a gale of wind, when I was midshipman of her? Well, I got just as wet that night as you are now. Pray, admiral, have you any commands to the Misses McFlinn?" "I'll tell you when I catch hold of you," said Sir Hurricane, as he moved upstairs to his room, dripping like Pope's Lodona, only not smelling so sweet. Hearing a noise, the housekeeper came up, and all the family assembled to condole with the humid admiral, but each enjoying the joke as much as ourselves. We, however, paid rather dearly for it. The admiral swore that neither of us should eat or drink in the house for three days; and Ned's father, though ready to burst with laughter, was forced in common decency to say that he thought the admiral perfectly right after so gross a violation of hospitality. I went and dined on board my ship, Ned went to a coffee-house; but on the third morning after the shower, I popped my head into the breakfast parlour, and said-- "Admiral, I have a good story to tell you, if you will let me come in." "I'd see you damned first, you young scum of a fish-pond. Be off, or I'll shy the ham at your head." "No, but indeed, my dear admiral, it is such a nice story; it is one just to your fancy." "Well then, stand there and tell it, but don't come in, for if you do--" I stood at the door and told him the story. "Well, now," said he, "that is a good story, and I will forgive you for it." So with a hearty laugh at my ingenuity, he promised to forgive us both, and I ran and fetched Ned to breakfast. This was the safest mode we could have adopted to get into favour, for the admiral was a powerful, gigantic fellow, that could have given us some very awkward squeezes. The peace was very honourably kept, and the next day the ship sailed. CHAPTER TWENTY FIVE.