“Few men understand the profession better than does the Captain of yonder vessel himself,” returned Wilder. “The devil he does! You have been talking with him, Mr Ark, about these matters, and he has got some of the fashions of the ‘Dart.’ I see into a mystery as quick as another!” “I do assure you, Captain Bignall, there is no safety in confiding in the ignorance of yonder extra ordinary man.” “Ay, ay, I begin to overhaul his character. The young dog is a quiz, and has been amusing himself with a sailor of what he calls the old school. Am I right, sir? He has seen salt water before this cruise?” “He is almost a native of the seas; for more than thirty years has he passed his time on them.” “There, Harry Ark, he has done you handsomely. Now, I have his own assertion for it, that he will not be three-and-twenty until to-morrow.” “On my word, he has deceived you, sir.” “I don’t know, Mr Ark; that is a task much easier attempted than performed. Threescore and four years add as much weight to a man’s head as to his heels! I may have undervalued the skill of the younker but, as to his years, there can be no great mistake. But where the devil is the fellow steering to? Has he need of a pinafore from his lady mother to come on board of a man-of-war for his dinner?” “See! he is indeed standing from us!” exclaimed Wilder, with a rapidity and delight that would have excited the suspicions of one more observant than his Commander. “If I know the stern from the bows of a ship, what you say is truth,” returned the other, with some austerity. “Hark ye, Mr Ark, I’ve a mind to furnish the coxcomb a lesson in respect for his superiors and give him a row to whet his appetite. By the Lord, I will; and he may write home an account of this manoeuvre, too, in his next despatches. Fill away the after-yards, sir; fill away. Since this _honourable_ youth is disposed to amuse himself with a sailing-match, he can take no offence that others are in the same humour.” The lieutenant of the watch, to whom the order was addressed, complied; and, in another minute, the “Dart” was also beginning to move a-head, though in a direction directly opposite to that taken by the “Dolphin.” The old man highly enjoyed his own decision, manifesting his self-satisfaction by the infinite glee and deep chuckling of his manner. He was too much occupied with the step he had just taken, to revert immediately to the subject that had so recently been uppermost in his mind; nor did the thought of pursuing the discourse occur to him, until the two ships had left a broad field of water between them, as each moved, with ease and steadiness, on its proper course.