“Perhaps, if one only knew exactly on what to found his claims,” continued the Rover, with a smile so kind, and a voice so insinuating, that they half counteracted the effect of his assumed manner, “a word might be dropped, in a letter home, that should do the youth no harm.” “I would to Heaven I dare but reveal the nature of the service he is on!” eagerly returned the warm-hearted old seaman, who was as quick to forget, as he was sudden to feel, disgust. “You may, however, safely say, from his general character, that it is honourable, hazardous, and has the entire good of his Majesty’s subjects in view. Indeed, an hour has scarcely gone by since I thought that, it was completely successful.—Do you often set your lofty sails, Captain Howard, while the heavier canvas is rolled upon the yards? To me, a ship clothed in that style looks something like a man with his coat on, before he has cased his legs in the lower garment.” “You allude to the accident of my maintop-gallant-sail getting loose when you first made me?” “I mean no other. We had caught a glimpse of your spars with the glass; but had lost you altogether, when the flying duck met the eye of a look-out. To say the least, it, was remarkable, and it might have proved an awkward circumstance.” “Ah! I often do things in that way, in order to be odd. It is a sign of cleverness to be odd, you know.—But I, too, am sent into these seas on a special errand.” “Such as what?” bluntly demanded his companion with an uneasiness about his frowning eye that he was far too simple-minded to conceal. “To look for a ship that will certainly give me a famous lift, should I have the good luck to fall in with her. For some time, I took you for the very gentle man I was in search of; and I do assure you, if your signals had not been so very unexceptionable, something serious might have happened between us.” “And pray, sir, for whom did you take me?” “For no other than that notorious knave the Red Rover.” “The devil you did! And do yon suppose, Captain Howard, there is a pirate afloat who carries such hamper above his head as is to be found aboard the Dart?’ Such a set to her sails—such a step to her masts—and such a trim to her hull? I hope, for the honour of your vessel, sir, that the mistake went no further than the Captain?” “Until we got within leading distance of the signals, at least a moiety of the better opinions in my ship was dead against you, Bignall, I give you my declaration. You’ve really been so long from home, that the ‘Dart’ is getting quite a roving look. You may not be sensible of it, but I assure you of the fact merely as a friend.” “And, perhaps, since you did me the honour to mistake my vessel for a freebooter,” returned the old tar, smothering his ire in a look of facetious irony, which changed the expression of his mouth to a grim grin, “you might have conceited this honest gentleman here to be no other than Beelzebub.”