nough to be
sure that his father was making steady progress in the affections of
the officers of the galley. At first there is little doubt that the
Captain was moved to capture their good will from a merely vague
desire, common to all men of his character, to stand well in the
opinion of everybody he met. He had arrived at Saint Germains, and
had ridden thence to meet King James, who was returning from Calais
in a dog's temper over the failure of the mutinous ships to meet him
at that port. Captain Salt presented the Earl's letter, and by
depicting the mutiny in colours which his imagination supplied,
laying stress on the enthusiasm of the crews, and declaring that the
success of their plot was delayed rather than destroyed by the
cunning of the usurper, he contrived to inspire hope again in the
breast of the cantankerous and exiled monarch, who kept him at his
side during the rest of the journey back to Paris, and there
introduced him to the favour of King Lewis. The latter monarch, who
happened to be bored, asked Captain Salt what he could do for him.

Captain Salt, remembering the Earl's promise, suggested that a
descent on the English coast might be made from Dunkirk, if his
Majesty were still disposed to befriend the unfortunate House of
Stuart.

King Lewis yawned, remembered that he had a certain number of galleys
languishing at Dunkirk for want of exercise, and suggested that
Captain Salt had better go and see for himself what they were likely
to effect.

Captain Salt went. His main purpose was to live in comfortable
quarters at the King's expense, while awaiting for the promised
letter from the Earl of Marlborough. On the eighth day after his
arrival, a small fishing-smack with a green pennant came racing past
the two castles at the entrance of Dunkirk pier, slackened her
main-sheet, spun down between the forts with the wind astern,
rounded, and cast anchor in the Royal Basin. Her crew then lowered a
little cockleshell of a dinghy, which she carried inboard, and a
tanned, red-bearded man pulled straight for the Commodore's galley.

He bore a letter addressed to Captain Roderick Salt. It was written
in cipher, but read as follows:

Dear S.,--Portland suspected you and had you followed. I saw his
eye upon you during your last interview with William. It was
clever to get through, nor can I discover how you managed it: for
the account given by your pursuers is plainly absurd. I've