can fight for
her, won't yew, sonny? And p'rhaps that won't be so very difficult,
a'ter all, for when I next see my friend Rodriguez--that's the cap'n of
the _Preciosa_--I'll tell him that yew're out arter him, and maybe he'll
lay for yew; for Rodriguez hates the Britishers 'most as bad as I do,
and I'm sure he'd enjy blowin' _El Caiman_ outer the water now that
she's fallen into yewr hands. He and Morillo was great friends; and I
reckon he'll feel bound to avenge Morillo's loss. Yes; I'll tell him,
for sure. And I'll also tell all the others on the Coast to keep a
bright look-out for the brigantine. Waal, so long, stranger. I'm bound
for the Congo, if yew're anyways anxious to know."

The foregoing remarks were made as he followed me to the waist and
watched my progress over the rail and from the main chains into my boat;
and the last item of information was yelled after me when we had put
about twenty fathoms of blue water between the boat and the ship. As I
flourished my hand by way of reply to his jeers, he turned away and I
heard his harsh, nasal accents uplifted in an order to his crew to
"Swing the main-yard; haul aft the jib-sheet; and sway away them
t'gallan' and r'yal yards."

Profoundly disappointed at my non-success, and bitterly mortified at the
insults to which I had been subjected by boarding the Yankee, I moodily
returned to the _Dolphin_ and, upon mounting to the deck, ordered the
gig to be hoisted and the helm to be put up in order that we might
return to the _Eros_, the royals of which were now just rising above the
horizon to the westward. Three-quarters of an hour later we were again
hove-to, and I was once more in the gig, on my way to report to Captain
Perry the result of my pursuit.

To say that the commodore was also deeply disappointed is only stating
the bare truth; yet I was not more than half-way through my narrative
before I saw that some scheme was taking shape in the back of his mind.
He questioned me very closely indeed upon certain points, one of his
questions having reference to the point of the possibility of effecting
a change in the name of the ship displayed upon her stern, it being
evident that a suspicion had arisen in his mind that the two ships
might, after all, be one and the same craft, sailing under different
flags as circumstances might require. To speak the truth the same
suspicion had once or twice crossed my own mind, but had been completely
dissipated by my