"Just so," quoth Callaghan, the Irishman whose tobacco had so plagued him when he was wounded; and who now came on deck with his head tied up, to see the fun, and lest he "should miss any fighting," as he said; "and I'll give you a sufficing rason why it should be so. You sees, ould Davie, I don't mean Mr Sprawl, is always on the look-out for betterer sowls, as it were--why, he cares no more than a frosted potato for such poor devils--such sure bargains as Jack Lennox and me, now"---- "Speak for yourself, friend Callaghan," rejoined the corporal. "And so I do, to be sure; and you being a friend, I am willing to spake for ye too, ye spalpeen; so be asy--as I was saying, he can have bushelsful such as we, whenever he chooses, as regular as we gets our own grog and grub. We are his every-day meals;--but when he can catch a parson--ah--he puts himself to some trouble to catch a parson; and so, you see, if you have not a regular snifter before to-morrow night, may I,"---- "Silence there," sung out Lanyard, not quite satisfied apparently with having so long played the eavesdropper. "Silence, and go to stations, will ye?" Every thing again relapsed into its former calm; the vessel approached; and to prevent her crossing our forefoot, as she came down within pistol shot, we edged away, and finally bore up almost alongside of her. "Ho--the ship, a-hoy!" "Hillo!" "What ship is that?" This was answered Scotch fashion--"What felucca is that?" Lanyard did not choose to stand on ceremony, so to save bother, he replied, "The tender to his Britannic Majesty's ship Gazelle. So heave-to, and I will send a boat on board of you." The strange sail, however, kept all fast, and stood steadily on his course. "If you don't shorten sail, and round-to, I will fire into you?" Another long pause.--Dick's patience was fast evaporating; and, "All ready with the gun, there?" was already on his tongue, when the stranger again hailed. "What ship is that down to leeward, there?" "The Gazelle," was the answer. The skipper now saw that, whether we were honest or not, he had no chance of escape, especially as he perceived that the Midge sailed nearly two feet for his one; so he immediately shortened sail and hove-to, and the next minute saw Señor Ricardo and my beautiful self, all by way of a lark, alongside. When we got on deck, we found the ship in a regular bustle--three carronades had been cast loose, round which the scanty crew, mustering some thirty hands, were clustered; but oh, the labyrinth of slack ropes, and the confusion altogether, and the ill-trimmed sails, and the danger to the shins from misplaced wadding tubs, stray spunges and rammers; not to forget the vagaries of three or four twelve-pound shot, that had fetched way, and were pursuing their devious courses at every roll, across and athwart, forward and back again. Two stout-looking young fellows, with drawn cutlasses, had stationed themselves at each side of the gangway as we entered.