e, and the boy
could plainly make out the sloop's boat being rowed out clear of the
man-of-war, and gradually increasing its distance.

Rodd watched them for some time, and what was but a speck to his naked
eye plainly showed in the field of the glass the regular movements of
the men, and now and then a flash suggestive of the rowers wearing
something brightly polished.

There were more flashes too caused by the sun's nearly horizontal rays,
and these came from right astern, where the golden orange sunshine
seemed to be intensified, looking wonderfully red; but ere long the
watcher had grasped the fact that he was looking at the bright scarlet
coats of so many marines, and then he was able to note the figures of
two of the boat's occupants seated together.

"The officers in command," he said to himself.

It was a long row from vessel to vessel, and the sun had begun to dip,
and sank quite out of sight as the sloop's cutter came alongside, the
men tossed up their oars, and a smart-looking officer of about thirty
sprang up the side, followed by a lad of Rodd's own age, who took his
attention from the first.

The officer was received at the side by the doctor and captain, Rodd
standing slightly behind looking hard at the midshipman, who stared
harder, frowning and putting on an air of the most consequential kind,
while, presumably involuntarily, his left hand played with the ivory and
gilt hilt of a curved dirk, suggestive of a strong desire to draw it out
of its sheath and flourish it before the schooner's crew.

The officer nodded importantly at the doctor, and then turned frowningly
upon the skipper with the angry question--

"What's the reason you didn't heave to?"

"Didn't give me time," growled the captain surlily.

"No insolence, sir! You ought to have obeyed the first gun. You are an
Englishman, and by the look of you have been long enough at sea to know
the rules when you encounter a man-of-war. Now then, what ship's this?"

"_Maid of Salcombe_, Plymouth."

"Owner?"

"I am," said the doctor quietly.

"Oh! What are you trading in?"

"I am not trading," said the doctor quietly. "This schooner is upon a
scientific expedition, under the auspices of the English Government."

"Oh," said the officer suspiciously; and he looked from the doctor to
the skipper, and from thence ran his eye over the crew gathered forward,
while the midshipman altered the pitch of his hat, turned towards Rodd,
whom for