"You are, I conclude, Mr Saul Cobb, master of the `Crab' schooner--not much like a crab though, by the way she went through the water," said I, running my eyes over the papers. "All well and good, Mr Cobb. We will take the `Crab' in tow as far as Rhode Island, where Sir Peter Parker, the English admiral, will decide what is to be done with her. Your passengers, I have no doubt, will be landed at Newport, and a safe conduct will be granted them in whatever direction they may wish to proceed." I looked up as I spoke, and bowed to the young lady. I found her eyes fixed on me, though she very quickly withdrew them, and I could not help fancying, vain puppy that I was! that a slight blush tinged her cheeks. "I trust, madam," said I, "that we shall be able to make arrangements satisfactory under the painful circumstances of the case to you and the lady who is with you." "She is my aunt," she answered quickly. "But I fear that it will be difficult to make amends to her for the inconvenience to which she must be put and the bitter disappointment she feels. She was called to the bedside of a brother she believes to be dying from his wounds, and there being no one else whose assistance she could claim, I accompanied her. We hoped to have landed to-morrow. Could you not still manage to put us on shore?" She looked up with such a beautiful, earnest expression that I instantly began to consider whether I could not by some possibility do as she requested. As the result of my reflections I replied-- "I am sorry to say I cannot do so. I dare not so far depart from my very clear line of duty; still, any accommodation I can afford you and your aunt will, I am sure, be sanctioned by the admiral." "You are very kind indeed, sir," said the young lady. "I would not ask any officer to neglect his duty to the king he serves; I should despise him if he did." She had risen from her seat, and stood resting her left hand on the table, while her right was slightly raised to give expression to her sentiments. "Ho, ho!" I thought, "your politics do not agree, then, with those of your aunt." I looked up into her face. I could not help it. How beautiful and animated she looked! Her figure was not tall, though exquisitely proportioned and rounded as if she enjoyed excellent health, and had been subject to very few of the cares and disappointments of life. In a word, I thought her a perfect heroine, and so she was. I could not help congratulating myself at the idea of having her society on board the tender for at least the next two days, and perhaps longer, and I must own that I was in no hurry to finish looking over the papers of the Crab, though for the life of me I could not have told a word of their contents. "Well, mister, are you satisfied now?" The harsh, grating sounds of Captain Cobb's voice, for he it was who spoke, recalled me to myself. "Yes, yes," I answered. "Turn your hands up and get a hawser secured on board with plenty of scope."