ly as before.

While he was thus employed, Dick, who was looking towards the Isle of
Wight, exclaimed, "See, Ben, see, what a fine ship yonder is, just come
in at the Needles!"

The fisherman, clenching the nail he had just driven in, turned his eyes
in the direction to which Dick pointed. "She's only a frigate, though a
good big one," he remarked. "She's not long since been in action, too,
with the enemy. Look at her topsails and top-gallant sails; they are
pretty well riddled. I can count wellnigh a score of shot-holes in
them; and her side, too, shows the hard knocks she has been getting.
Just run to the top of the beach, and see if any other ships are
following. Maybe the fleet has had a brush with the enemy, and yonder
frigate has been sent on ahead with news of the action."

Dick, doing as he was bid, soon reached a point of the shingly bank
whence he could obtain a view of the sea to the westward. "Hurrah!" he
shouted; "here comes another ship under a fore-jurymast and her bowsprit
gone. She seems to me to have not a few shot-holes in her canvas,
though it's hard to make out at the distance she is off."

Ben, in his eagerness, forgetting his work, ran up to where Dick was
standing. "Yes, there's no doubt about it, yonder craft is a prize to
the first. When she gets nearer we shall see that her sails are well
riddled and her hull battered, too. Those Frenchmen don't give in till
they've been thoroughly drubbed; but I doubt whether we shall know more
about the matter to-night than we do now, for the wind is falling, and
the tide making out strong against her. See, the frigate can only just
stem it, and unless the breeze freshens, she must bring up or drift out
through the Needles again."

Such, indeed, was likely to be the case, for though still going ahead,
her progress was very slow. She had already got some little distance to
the eastward of Hurst Point, when, the wind freshening again, her sails
blew out, and, gliding majestically on, she edged over to the Isle of
Wight shore.

"She'll not get to Spithead to-night, notwithstanding," remarked Ben,
"for there's not a breath of air away to the eastward; see, the sails of
that brig out there are hanging flat against the masts."

Ben was right. The wind again dropping, presently the hands were seen
flying aloft, the studding-sails were quickly taken in, the courses
brailed up; the topsail yards being rapidly lowered, the ready crew
sprang on to