"The noble captain of the _Hebe_ turned to look out through the stern window to seaward, his face losing the weary sort of half-melancholy cast it had shown for the last minute, while his eye glistened; and it struck me how well matched the _Hebe_ and her commander were; you'd have said both had good blood in them, both being models to look at of their kind, and the frigate lifting under you at the moment, from the keel upward, with a check aloft in her main-topsail, that lifted her stem to the surge. A small telescope rolled off the sofa on to the cabin deck, and as I picked it up, another gust could be heard coming down St James Valley from inside the island; through the gun-port one saw the trees wave over the hot white houses in the bright-coloured little town, while the ship's canvas gave another flutter above-decks. Lord Frederick laughed, and said, 'Then I suppose we need say no more about it, Mr Collins, except referring once for all to Sir Dudley?' I bowed, and the upshot was, that, an hour or two after, I had my acting commission sent me from the Admiral, the same boat having called at the _Podargus_ for my things; upon which Lord Frederick introduced me to the first lieutenant, and I found myself once more doing duty in the service--the _Hebe_ standing out to leeward with the last light, just as the _Podargus_ was tripping anchor to beat round again the other way. As for our friends from the burnt vessel, I must say I had forgot them already, for the time at least. "Every block, crag, and knot in the huge crust of the rock shone terribly bright for a minute or two, aloft from over the yard-ends, as she stood suddenly out into the fiery gleam of the sun going down many a mile in the Atlantic. Then up leapt the light keener and keener to the very topmost peak, till you'd have thought it went in like a living thing behind a telegraph, that stood out against a black cleft betwixt two cliffs. We saw the evening gun off Ladder Hill flash upon the deep blue of the sky, seemingly throwing up the peak and flagstaff a dozen feet higher; and the boom of the gun sounding in among the wild hills and hollows within the island, as if one heard it going up to Longwood door. Scarce was it lost, ere a star or two were to be seen in the shadow on the other side, and you listened almost, in the hush following upon the gunfire, for an echo to it, or something stranger; in place of which the _Hebe_ was already forging ahead in the dark to get well clear of the land, every wave bringing its own blackness with it up toward her fore-chains, then sparkling back to her waist in the seeth of foam as she felt the breeze; while St Helena lay towering along to larboard, with its ragged top blotting against the deep dark blue of the sky, all filling as it was with the stars.