oped to spend his birthday at home with his father and sister,
the only relatives he possessed on earth, but circumstances had ordered
it otherwise. He stood just five feet seven inches in his stockings;
was as stout-built and shapely a youth as one need wish to see, though
it was evident that he had not yet attained his full growth; his frank,
handsome, albeit sunburnt face was lighted up by a pair of keen, honest
grey eyes and crowned by a close-cut crop of crisp, curly, flaxen hair--
a good-tempered, pleasant-looking fellow enough, true as steel, brave as
true, and, having been already three years at sea, as smart a seaman as
ever trod a plank.

His father was his exact counterpart, with the comparatively trifling
difference that he was not quite so tall as Ned; was broader in the
beam, and, as of course might be expected, much older-looking, though
the appearance of age was due principally to the grey with which his
hair and bushy whiskers (which latter appendages, by the by, Ned was
still without) was thickly dashed; the old gentleman's eye being as keen
and bright as his son's, and his step almost as springy.

Edward Damerell, senior, it may be as well to mention, was a naval
lieutenant, retired upon half-pay. He had seen a great deal of service
in his youth, principally on the West Coast of Africa and in the China
seas, and had been fairly fortunate in the matter of acquiring prize-
money--to which circumstance he was indebted for the exceedingly
comfortable little cottage on the hill overlooking Newton's Cove, which
he had inhabited for some twenty-five years, having purchased and
settled down in it upon his marriage and retirement from the service.

His daughter Eva was a beautiful girl, as good as she was beautiful, and
the very apple of her father's eye--which is all that need be said of
her, as she plays no part in the events which it is the purpose of this
narrative to chronicle.

Young Edward Damerell, born and brought up within sight and sound of the
sea, early manifested a natural desire to tread in his father's
footsteps by following the same profession. To this the old gentleman
made no very serious objection, but he would not hear of his son
entering the navy. The service, he insisted, had been ruined by the
introduction of steam and armour-plates. Moreover, he had discovered,
to his cost, that without money and influence, and plenty of both, a man
stood but little chance, in these piping time