y with which the men had stood
by me, as it was to my own individual merits.

"That's right, my boy," remarked the admiral; "I am glad to hear you
speak like that. No doubt what you say is true, but it does not detract
in the least from the value of your own services. I always think the
better of an officer who is willing to do full justice to the merits of
those who have helped him, and your promotion will not come to you the
less quickly for having helped your shipmates to theirs. You have _all_
done well, and I will see to it that you are all adequately rewarded--
Christie and Lindsay by getting their step, and you by getting a
somewhat better craft than the little cockleshell in which you have
already done so well. I am of opinion that all you require is
opportunity, and, by the Piper, you shall have it."

And the old gentleman kept his word; for when I went aboard the _Tern_
on the following day--I dined and slept at the house of some friends a
little way out from Kingston that night--Christie and Lindsay met me
with beaming faces and the information that the former had got his step
as master, while Lindsay had received an acting order as lieutenant
pending his passing of the necessary examination. The only drawback to
this good news was the intelligence that the man Garcia had mysteriously
disappeared during the night, leaving not a trace of his whereabouts
behind him.

An hour or two later I went ashore and waited upon the admiral at his
office, in accordance with instructions received from him on the
previous day; and upon being ushered into his presence, he at once began
to question me relative to the qualities of the _Diane_. I was able to
speak nothing but good of her; for indeed what I had seen of her, during
the passage to Port Royal, had convinced me that she was really a very
fine vessel in every respect, a splendid sea-boat, wonderfully fast,
and, I had no doubt, a thoroughly wholesome, comfortable craft in bad
weather.

"Just so," commented the admiral, when I had finished singing her
praises; "what you have said quite confirms my own opinion of her, which
is that, in capable hands, she may be made exceedingly useful.
Moreover, she is more nearly a match for Morillo's brigantine than is
the little _Tern_, eh? Well, my lad, I have been thinking matters over,
and have made up my mind that she is good enough to purchase into the
service; so I will have it seen to at once, and of course I shall g