Now, strange as it may seem, when I got away I went forward and leaned out of an open port, and there, for some strange reason, the strain under which I had been laboring almost overcame me, and it was all I could do to keep from sobbing or to control the shaking of my limbs. While crouched there I felt a hand laid on my shoulder, and looking up I saw it was Edmundson, the Third Lieutenant. "The Captain wishes to speak to you in the cabin, lad," he said, kindly. "Jump aft." When I entered the plainly furnished little space, for the quarters of the officers were almost as confined as those of the crew, I saw that Captain Temple was sitting at the end of the table, which was covered with open charts. He looked up, and seeing who it was, half smiled. [Illustration: "IF YOU ARE AS GOOD A SAILOR AS YOU ARE A SWORDSMAN, YOU WILL END THIS CRUISE AN OFFICER."] "Debrin," he said, "you have done well. If you are as good a sailor as you are a swordsman, you will end this cruise an officer. This is more than I have ever said in the way of praise or promise to any living man. Forget it, and do your duty." I could not have replied at this moment, for my wits left me; so I merely touched my forehead in salute, and went forward again. I could see that the men were whispering, and it was all I could do to hide my embarrassment. I believe that I was blushing like a schoolgirl. The next day was a repetition of this one, albeit the work was quite easy for me, and I grew keen with the interest of it. The Fourth Lieutenant, a Mr. Spencer, arrived in the afternoon; and a sergeant, who had served in the army, was enlisted as a Lieutenant of marines. Apparently he found no fault with whatever they had been taught under my instruction, and Sutton, the man with whom I had had the passage of arms, came to me to learn the disarming stroke. As I met him more than half-way in this overture, we became friendly. In the afternoon I endeavored to get ashore (oh, how I wished to talk to Mary!), and I was delighted at being one of the crew that pulled Captain Temple to the wharf at six o'clock. Captain Temple's stay on shore, however, had been short, consisting merely of a visit to Mr. McCulough's office (the latter was part owner of the _Young Eagle_), and I got no chance to run up into the town, as I had intended. My wish, if it were possible, to get another glimpse of Mary Tanner, was frustrated. This fortune was not to be mine. Oh, one thing that I almost came to forgetting: On the pier, standing in the crowd, was Gaston, his outrageous black hat tied about with a streamer and his long cloak flapping about his shanks. I doubt not the people were making fun of him. But he did not recognize me, and I breathed more freely. As we rowed back to the ship, I heard the Captain say to a caderverous-looking man who had joined him at the dock with a big bundle and an oak chest, "Well, Mr. Flemming, we sail on the early tide to-morrow."