-to see if
they were keeping a good watch, and that sort of thing--and when I
got on board, I found she was a ship of war, with a lot of heavy
guns, and prepared to take us by surprise when we attacked her; so
of course, when I swam back again with the news, Captain Lockett
cut his cable and towed the brig out in the dark.

"As to the other affair that the doctor is talking about, I told
you that, too; and it is exactly as I said it was. The only thing I
had to do with it was that it happened to be my idea to keep the
Spanish colours flying, and let the frigate keep on firing at us.
The idea turned out well; but of course, if I had not thought of it
somebody else would, so there was nothing in it, at all."

"Well, Bob, you may say what you like," Doctor Burke said, "but it
is quite evident that the captain thought there was a good deal in
it.

"And I think really, Gerald, that you and Mrs. O'Halloran have good
reason to feel quite proud of him. I am not joking at all, when I
say that Captain Lockett really spoke as if he considered that the
good fortune they had had is very largely due to him. He said he
hoped he should have Bob on board for another cruise."

"I certainly shall not go any more with him," Bob said,
indignantly, "if he talks such nonsense about me, afterwards. As if
there was anything in swimming two or three hundred yards, on a
dark night; or in suggesting the keeping a flag up, instead of
pulling it down."

When the Brilliant, however, came in two days later, Captain
Langton called upon Mrs. O'Halloran; and told her that he did so in
order to acquaint her with the extremely favourable report Captain
Lockett had made, to him, of Bob's conduct; and that, from what he
had said, it was evident that the lad had shown great courage in
undertaking the swim to the Spanish vessel, and much promptness and
ready wit in suggesting the device that had deceived him, as well
as the Spaniards.

Captain Langton told the story, that evening, at General Eliott's
dinner table; and said that although it was certainly a good joke,
against himself, that he should have thus assisted a privateer to
carry off two valuable prizes that had slipped through the
frigate's hands, the story was too good not to be told. Thus, Bob's
exploit became generally known among the officers of the garrison;
and Captain O'Halloran was warmly congratulated upon the sharpness,
and pluck, of his young brother-in-law.

Captain Lockett's dec