"Don't be alarmed, madam. You are perfectly safe," said the fourth midshipman, as he approached the captain, whom he easily recognized by his dress and appearance. "You seem to be in a tight place." [Illustration: THE STRANDED STEAMER. PAGE 330.] The captain, who was a German, did not seem to understand this remark, though he spoke English. "You belong to the boy-ship?" said he. "The Academy Ship, sir. What can we do for you?" replied Scott. "I want a steamer to pull me off." "Then I don't know that we can do anything for you." "You can send a steamer, if you are going on to Swinemünde. My passengers are very much frightened, though there is no danger, unless we have a storm." "We will take off your passengers, sir." "Thank you; that will relieve them. I have only ten." The second cutter was swung round, and the officers of the steamer assisted the passengers into the boat. As the first cutter soon arrived, a part of them were placed on board of her. "O Clyde, Clyde!" exclaimed Mrs. Blacklock, as she hugged her boy. "I thought I should never see you again." "Come, mother, don't be too demonstrative. You will make all the fellows laugh at me." "I'm so glad to see you, Clyde!" added Miss Celia Blacklock, his sister. Clyde kissed them both, and then begged them to allow him to attend to his duty. "Up oars!" shouted he, with vigor. "Shove off!" "I am so glad to get out of that steamer!" added Mrs. Blacklock. "I thought we should all be drowned." "Let fall!" said Clyde, too much interested in his new duties even to heed his mother. "Stern, all! Give way!" "And I'm very, very glad to find you again, Clyde!" continued the lady. "Oars! Now give way together!" and Clyde gathered up his tiller-ropes, and for the first time had an opportunity to attend to his mother, whom he had not seen for nearly three months. The young Englishman was an only son, and his mother a widow, who had been utterly unable to manage him, after she had spoiled him by early indulgence. The youth had a freak, when he saw the Academy Ship, that he should like to join her, but soon changed his mind. As the institution seemed to be the only means of saving him from his own folly and wilfulness, Mrs. Blacklock had reluctantly permitted Mr. Lowington to take the control of him. Though he had run away, and had been subjected to sharp but excellent discipline, he had done very well as soon as he found it was no longer possible for him to have his own way. "I have been looking for you these two months, Clyde," said his mother. "Where have you been?" Clyde told her where he had been. "I went to St. Petersburg, but the ship had not been there, and I returned to Stockholm, and have spent the last month in Sweden." "We were rusticating among the islands in the Gulf of Bothnia while you were looking for me." "Why haven't you written to me, Clyde?" "I did not know where you were." "I hope you have had enough of the sea," sighed his mother.