y, and felt some little amusement in thinking that,
if my enemies had sought this way of crushing me, they had very
much mistaken their man. My activity and strength of limb stood me
in good stead and won me a certain rough respect from officers and
men, together with the real goodwill of a few of the better
disposed among them.

After a day or two one old salt, named John Dilly, took me in a
manner under his wing, and I made shift with his guidance to bear
my part in shortening and letting out sail. Fortunately the weather
was mild, and the early days of my apprenticeship were not so
terrible as they might have been had the vessel encountered the
storms that are commonly experienced in those seas, and especially
in the Bay of Biscay, in which we beat about for nigh a week in the
hope of sighting a Frenchman.

From John Dilly I learned that Vetch's position on board was that
of purser, he having been introduced to the captain by Dick Cludde.
Vetch attempted no active measures of hostility against me; indeed,
he kept religiously out of my way, fearing maybe that I might seize
an opportunity to settle accounts with him. Sometimes I saw him
grin with malicious pleasure when he caught sight of me tarring
ropes or engaged in some other arduous or unsavory task; but I
never gratified him by giving sign of resentment or humiliation.

I had to take my watch with the rest of the crew. One morning, some
ten days after leaving Bristowe, the captain came on deck at two
bells and ordered me to the mizzen cross-trees to keep a sharp
lookout, at the same time sending Dilly to the fore cross-trees. It
was his practice, I had learned, to give a money bounty to the
first man who sighted an enemy if the discovery resulted in a
capture, and I was eager to win the prize, not more for its own
sake than as a means of standing well with the captain.

The sun rose over the hills of France as I sat at my post. For a
time I was entranced with the beauty of the sight, watching the
changing hues of the sky, as pink turned to gold, and gold merged
into the heavenly blue. But the morning air was chilly, and what
with the cold and my cramped position I was longing for release
when my eye was suddenly caught by what resembled the wing of a
bird on the horizon about west-southwest. Was it the sail of a
ship, I wondered, roused to excitement, or merely a cloud? Had old
Dilly observed it?

I durst not cry out lest I were mistaken; but, straining my