Rover's Ledge_, watching the
boat that bore their comrade to the shore.

CHAPTER SIXTEEN.

NEW ARRANGEMENTS--THE CAPTAIN'S PHILOSOPHY IN REGARD TO PIPEOLOGY.

That night our hero was lodged in the common jail of Arbroath. Soon
after, he was tried, and, as Captain Ogilvy had prophesied, was
acquitted. Thereafter he went to reside for the winter with his mother,
occupying the same room as his worthy uncle, as there was not another
spare one in the cottage, and sleeping in a hammock, slung parallel with
and close to that of the captain.

On the night following his release from prison, Ruby lay on his back in
his hammock meditating intently on the future, and gazing at the
ceiling, or rather at the place where he knew the ceiling to be, for it
was a dark night, and there was no light in the room, the candle having
just been extinguished.

We are not strictly correct, however, in saying that there was _no_
light in the room, for there was a deep red glowing spot of fire near to
Captain Ogilvy's head, which flashed and grew dim at each alternate
second of time. It was, in fact, the captain's pipe, a luxury in which
that worthy man indulged morning, noon, and night. He usually rested
the bowl of the pipe on and a little over the edge of his hammock, and,
lying on his back, passed the mouthpiece over the blankets into the
corner of his mouth, where four of his teeth seemed to have agreed to
form an exactly round hole suited to receive it. At each draw the fire
in the bowl glowed so that the captain's nose was faintly illuminated;
in the intervals the nose disappeared.

The breaking or letting fall of this pipe was a common incident in the
captain's nocturnal history, but he had got used to it, from long habit,
and regarded the event each time it occurred with the philosophic
composure of one who sees and makes up his mind to endure an inevitable
and unavoidable evil.

"Ruby," said the captain, after the candle was extinguished.

"Well, uncle?"

"I've bin thinkin', lad,--"

Here the captain drew a few whiffs to prevent the pipe from going out,
in which operation he evidently forgot himself and went on thinking, for
he said nothing more.

"Well, uncle, what have you been thinking?"

"Eh! ah, yes, I've bin thinkin', lad (pull), that you'll have to
(puff)--there's somethin' wrong with the pipe to-night, it don't draw
well (puff)--you'll have to do somethin' or other in the town, for it
won't do to leave the