had
come from the frigate to assist us returned to her. She stood to the
southward, and we made sail for Port Royal. Among the first men on whom
my eyes fell was Dan Hoolan, looking as sulky and morose as ever, though
he was going about his work with more activity than he generally
displayed. As I caught sight of the rest of the crew, I found that
three more of the Irishmen pressed with him were among them.

"I hope that by this time they are content with their lot, and will do
their duty like men," I thought to myself; "still I would rather have
had any others."

"We are terribly short-handed, I must confess," said Nettleship, as he
and I were seated at dinner in the captain's cabin, while Tom Pim was
acting as officer of the watch. "I know I can trust you two fellows,
however, and we must make the most of the men we've got. There are many
of them about the worst on board; but if we have fine weather, they
won't have much to do, and we may hope not to catch a Tartar on the way.
We must take to our heels if we see a suspicious stranger, and the
_Soleil_ appears to have a fast pair, at all events, so we may hope to
escape. Though I would rather be in a condition to fight than have to
run away."

"The Frenchmen only promised to assist in navigating the ship. We
mustn't trust them to man the guns," I said.

"We'll see what our own men can do without them, then," said Nettleship
in a cheery tone.

We hurried over our dinner to let Tom come down and take his, while
Nettleship and I went on deck. The weather looked favourable, and
Nettleship was in high spirits at finding himself in command of a fine
ship. Should he take her to Port Royal in safety, he might reasonably
expect to obtain his long waited-for promotion. Although the majority
of the men sent with us were the least reliable of the crew, we had an
old quartermaster, Ben Nash, and three other seamen, who were first-rate
hands, and we took care to put two of them into each watch. Of course
there was plenty of work to do in getting the ship to rights. As soon
as the men knocked off we heard Larry's riddle going. Stepping forward,
I found that he had set all the Frenchmen dancing, and some of our own
men, too, who were enjoying themselves to their hearts' content. "Larry
will take good care to keep the people in good temper," I thought to
myself, as I turned aft.

When night came on, Nettleship thought it prudent to shorten sail, as is
the custom