es than you can help."

"Oh, I am growing out of that, Mr. Medlin!"

"Not you, Bob. They may be different sorts of scrapes, in the
future; but scrapes there will be, or I am a Dutchman."

"Well, youngster, are you a good sailor?" the captain asked; as the
Antelope, with all sail set, ran down Southampton water.

"I hope I am, captain, but I don't know, yet. I have gone out
sailing in boats at Plymouth several times, in rough weather, and
have never felt a bit ill; but I don't know how it will be, in a
ship like this."

"If you can sail in rough water in a boat, without feeling ill, you
ought to be all right here, lad. She is an easy craft, as well as a
fast one; and makes good weather of it, in anything short of a
gale.

"There is eight bells striking--that means eight o'clock, and
breakfast. You had better lay in as good a store as you can. We
shall be outside the Needles, if the wind holds, by dinnertime; and
you may not feel so ready for it, then."

The second mate breakfasted in the cabin with the captain and Bob,
the first mate remaining on deck. The second mate was a young man
of three or four and twenty, a cousin of the captain. He was a
frank, pleasant-faced young sailor, and Bob felt that he should
like him.

"How many days do you expect to be in getting to Gibraltar,
captain?"

"About ten, if we have luck; twenty if we haven't. There is never
any saying."

"How many men do you carry?"

"Twenty-eight seamen, the cook, the steward, two mates, and myself;
and there are three boys. Thirty-six all told."

"I see you have eight guns, besides the pivot gun."

"Yes. We have plenty of hands for working them, if we only have to
fight one side at once; but we shouldn't be very strong handed, if
we had to work both broadsides. There are four sixteen pounders,
four twelves, and the pivot; so that gives three men to a gun,
besides officers and idlers. Three men is enough for the twelves,
but it makes rather slow work with the sixteens. However, we may
hope that we sha'n't have to work both broadsides at once.

"We carry a letter of marque so that, in case of our having the
luck to fall in with a French trader, we can bring her in. But that
is not our business. We are peaceful traders, and don't want to
show our teeth, unless we are interfered with."

To Bob's great satisfaction, he found that he was able to eat his
dinner with unimpaired appetite; although the Antelope was clear of
the island, and was