care little for law or justice once
they have them on the high seas."

"We have no protection," said I; "we are strangers here, and know no
one."

"There they come, sir; that's the tramp!" cried the woman; "there's
nothing for it now but to stay quiet and hope you'll not be noticed.
Take those knives up, will ye?" said she, flinging a napkin toward me,
and speaking in an altered voice, for already two figures were darkening
the entrance, and peering down into the depth below; while, turning to
Santron, she motioned him to remove the dishes from the table--a service
in which, to do him justice, he exhibited a zeal more flattering to his
tact than his spirit of resistance.

"Tripped their anchors already, Mother Martin?" said a large-whiskered
man, with a black belt round his waist; while, passing round the tables,
he crammed into his mouth several fragments of the late feast.

"You wouldn't have 'em wait for you, Captain John," said she, laughing.

"It's just what I would, then," replied he. "The Admiralty has put
thirty shillings more on the bounty, and where will these fellows get
the like of that? It isn't a West India-service neither, nor a coastin'
cruise off Newfoundland, but all as one as a pleasure-trip up the
Mediterranean, and nothing to fight but Frenchmen. Eh, younker, that
tickles _your_ fancy!" cried he to Santron, who, in spite of himself,
made some gesture of impatience. "Handy chaps, those, Mother Martin,
where did you chance on 'em?"

"They're sons of a Canada skipper in the river yonder," said she,
calmly.

"They arn't over-like to be brothers," said he, with the grin of one too
well accustomed to knavery to trust any thing opposed to his own
observation. "I suppose them's things happens in Canada as elsewhere,"
said he, laughing, and hoping the jest might turn her flank. Meanwhile
the press-leader never took his eyes off me, as I arranged plates and
folded napkins with all the skill which my early education in Boivin's
restaurant had taught me.

"He _is_ a smart one," said he, half-musingly. "I say, boy, would you
like to go as cook's aid on board a king's ship? I know of one as would
just suit you."

"I'd rather not, sir; I'd not like to leave my father," said I, backing
up Mrs. Martin's narrative.

"Nor that brother there; wouldn't he like it?"

I shook my head negatively.

"Suppose I have a talk with the skipper about it?" said he, looking at
me steadily for some seconds. "Suppose I