she was about eighteen years old. I well remember the intense
delight with which I read it in my boyhood, and was lately surprised to
find that it had been so long out of print. The publishers, however,
consider that the work, esteemed as it was in former years, is, from the
style and the very natural mistakes of a young lady discernible with
regard to matters nautical, scarcely suited to the taste of the present
day. They therefore requested me to re-write it, believing that the
subject might be worked into a deeply interesting story of much larger
proportions than the original. This I have endeavoured to accomplish,
and I trust that the new version of "The Rival Crusoes" may become as
popular among the present generation as its predecessor was with the
last.

W.H.G. Kingston.

CHAPTER ONE.

AT KEYHAVEN--IN DANGEROUS COMPANY--THE OLD SMUGGLER--A FRIGATE AFTER
BATTLE--DISLIKE OF BEN FOR THE ROYAL NAVY--AN UNEXPECTED LANDING--
OVERBEARING CONDUCT OF THE MIDSHIPMEN--ANGRY WORDS--LORD REGINALD
OSWALD--TOADY VOULES--AT THE VILLAGE INN--OLD MESSMATES--TEMPTATION--
SUSAN RUDALL'S ANXIOUS LIFE--AN ADVENTURE ON THE WAY TO ELVERSTON--HOME
AT LAST--RECEPTION AT THE HALL.

"I tell you what, Dick, if I was Farmer Hargrave I would not turn out to
please Lord Elverston or any other lord in the land," exclaimed Ben
Rudall, as he stood hammering away at the side of his boat, which lay
drawn up on the inner end of Hurst beach, near the little harbour of
Keyhaven, on the Hampshire coast, at the western entrance of the Solent,
opposite the Isle of Wight. His dress and weather-beaten countenance,
as well as the work he was engaged on, showed that he was a seafaring
man.

"But Mr Gooch the bailiff says there is a flaw, as he calls it, in the
lease; but what that means I don't know, except that it's not all right,
and that father must turn out, whether he likes it or not," answered
Dick Hargrave, who was standing near, and occasionally giving Ben a
helping hand. He was a lad about sixteen years of age, strongly built,
with a good-looking face, exhibiting a firm and determined expression.
His dress was more that of a landsman than of a sailor, though it
partook of both.

"Flaw or no flaw, I say again, I would hold on fast to the farm, unless
I was turned out by force. Your father, Dick, is worth ten of such
lords, or a hundred, for that matter. He has held that farm since his
father's time. His father and grandfather and