I
should doubt whether any one ship ever carried as much costly
merchandise as you have stored here. I will think over how they had best
be got to England. The things will require careful handling, for if they
were consigned to an ordinary prize agent they might be sold anyhow and
for half their value."

On the following day the two midshipmen were signalled to come on board
the _Tigre_.

"I have been thinking your matter over, gentlemen," Sir Sidney said
when they had entered his cabin. "I have power to appoint a prize agent
in England. As a matter of fact I have not done so. Coming out here, as
I did, on a diplomatic mission, I had no thought of taking prizes. Those
we have picked up here I simply sent to the agent at Gibraltar, which,
by the way, is one of the very worst places one can send them to, as the
vessels are sold at ridiculous prices. Ordinarily Malta would be the
port we should have sent them to from here, but as it is still in the
possession of the French, Gibraltar is the only port in the
Mediterranean. Of course they might be sent to England; but there is the
difficulty of detaching men and officers, and the risk of their being
captured by French privateers, so that practically we are driven to
Gibraltar.

"Of course the prize court will have the disposal of the cargo, but I
will write to the head of the court, who is a personal friend of mine,
asking him to intrust the sale of the Eastern goods to your father, Mr.
Blagrove, saying that as he has been for years engaged in trade in the
East, and must therefore be acquainted with the value of these things,
is in the habit of sending Egyptian silks and so on to London for sale,
he must know the channels in which they could be best disposed of. Of
course the dried fruits and the English goods could be sold by the
court, but it would never do to throw such a quantity of Eastern goods
on the market at once. Among the prizes that have been taken is a smart
brig of about the same size as the _Tigress_. She was caught making for
Alexandria with powder and ball for the French army. Fortunately for us
her captain was not a first-class navigator, and so missed his mark by
about ten miles, and found himself, to his consternation and our
satisfaction, close under our guns.

"I was going to send her to Gibraltar to be sold. I do not think that
we can do better than buy her to carry home your cargo. I will call a
court of four officers to put on her the price the