same as I did
in taking you and the doctor here for slavers."

"Oh!" cried Rodd, laughing.

"Ah, it warn't anything to laugh at, my lad, with round shot coming
a-splashing right across your bows. Certainly it was in a fog, and my
craft didn't get hit, but more than once the balls came pretty near, and
I remember thinking whether if the cutter did sink us we should all be
able to swim ashore, and I come to the conclusion that we couldn't in
our boots, for it was about nine miles."

"I should think not," replied Rodd dryly. "But, Captain Chubb--about
that brig; do you think they'd get right away to sea?"

"I shouldn't think they'd try to, my lad."

"They seemed to be trying to."

"Not they. Her skipper, as soon as he got outside the harbour, would
try to creep under the lee of the high ground somewhere out west.
Whether he'd do it or not is quite another thing. Let's hope he did,
for I don't care about hearing that good men and true have been drowned
in a storm, even if they are French. I am not like your uncle here."

"Come, I say, Captain Chubb," cried the doctor indignantly, "how dare
you say that! Surely a thinking man can have a feeling of antipathy
against Napoleon Bonaparte and all his works without being accused of
liking to see brave Frenchmen drowned."

"Beg pardon, sir. I suppose you are right," granted the skipper; "but I
should like to hear that that there smart brig got safe away."

"Well, I hope so too," said Uncle Paul shortly, and with a look in his
countenance that made Rodd think about some words a friend had once said
about a red rag to a bull. "But I suppose you don't believe that vessel
had some emissaries of Napoleon on board, come to set fire to the port
of Havre?"

"Nay," said the skipper, drawing out the negative very deliberately.
"Don't see any likelihood of their doing such a thing. What for?
Suppose they did get it alight, that wouldn't bring Bony back. Nay, his
game's about up now, and there will be quiet again over here for a bit,
though I wouldn't venture to say for how long. Keeping quiet isn't in a
Frenchman's nature."

"But there was evidently something very special about the vessel, or
else the French Government wouldn't have sent orders for her to be
seized."

"French Government did?"

"Yes, I believe so," replied Uncle Paul. "We saw the officer and his
men come riding in with the dispatch."

"Nay. Order for the Revenue to put men on board."

"Oh no,"