e expected to find any body else whom he had met before; but he
had not been long on board, when a seaman came up to him, and, putting
out his hand, exclaimed--

"What, Jack Deane, don't you know me?"

"Yes," said Jack, at last, wringing him by the hand; "but I should not
have recognised you in that dress and with that ugly cut down your
cheek, if I did not remember your voice."

"Yes; I have seen some service already," answered the seaman. "I have a
bullet through my leg, and this pretty little remembrance on my cheek;
but it's what we have to expect. We're paid for it, you know; and
besides, we give as good as we take, and that's a consolation."

"But what made you come to sea?" asked Jack. "I had no idea you had any
fancy that way."

"I may ask the same question of you, friend Deane," said Smedley, for it
was Jack's old poaching acquaintance. "The honest truth is, I found
Nottingham too hot to hold me, and so here I am come to serve his
majesty. It is a pretty hard life, I will own; but I have brought
myself into it, and so I have determined not to grumble."

"Well, I have my own reasons, too, Smedley, for coming to sea," said
Jack, "but you will excuse me if I don't explain them. I hope we may
both do our duty, and fight bravely for our country. That's what I have
come to sea for, with the hope of seeing a little more of the world than
I should if I had remained at Nottingham, or continued to drive oxen
between Scotland and Stourbridge."

Smedley, who had already been some weeks at sea, was able to give Jack a
good deal of instruction in his duties, and found him an apt scholar.
Jack was determined to make himself a seaman as soon as he could. From
morning till night he was employed in picking up information, and he
soon gained some knowledge in the arts of knotting and splicing. He
quickly, too, found his way aloft; and though at first he felt rather
giddy at the mast-head, his eye soon got accustomed to look down on the
deck below, and he could run out on the yards in a short time with any
man on board. He soon, indeed, surpassed Smedley himself. The man he
took to be Burdale, from the way he walked the deck, was evidently
accustomed to a sailor's life.

So rapidly were the ships got ready for sea, that in a short time a
large fleet was collected in the Downs under the command of Admiral
Russell. He had under him Lord Berkeley, Admiral of the Blue, and Sir
Cloudesley Shovel, Vice-Admiral of th