ive
you the command of her. She will want a considerable amount of
attention at the hands of the shipwrights after the mauling that you
gave her, but you shall supervise everything yourself, and they shall do
nothing without your approval; so see to it that they don't spoil her.
I notice that she mounts six sixes of a side. Now I propose to alter
that arrangement by putting four long nines in place of those six sixes,
with an eighteen-pounder on her forecastle; and with such an armament as
that, and a crew to match, you ought to be able to render an exceedingly
good account of yourself. What do you think of my idea?"

I replied truthfully that I considered it excellent in every way; and we
then launched into a discussion of minor details, with which I need not
weary the reader, at the end of which I went aboard the _Tern_ and paid
off her crew, preparatory to her being turned over to the shipwrights,
along with her prize.

It happened that just about this time there was an exceptionally heavy
press of work in the dockyard; for there had been several frigate
actions of late, and the resources of the staff were taxed to the utmost
to effect the repairs following upon such events and to get the ships
ready for sea again in the shortest possible time; with the result that
such small fry as the _Diane_ and the _Tern_ were obliged to wait until
the heaviest of the work was over and the frigates were again ready for
service. It thus happened that, although I contrived to worry the
dockyard superintendent into putting a few shipwrights aboard the
_Diane_, three weeks passed, and still the brigantine was very far from
being ready for sea. During this time I made my headquarters at "Mammy"
Wilkinson's hotel in Kingston,--that being the hotel especially affected
by navy men,--although I was seldom there, the planters and big-wigs of
the island generally proving wonderfully hospitable, and literally
overwhelming me with invitations to take up my abode with them. But
about the time that I have mentioned it happened that certain
alterations were being effected aboard the brigantine, which I was
especially anxious to have carried out according to my own ideas; I
therefore spent the whole of the day, for several days in succession, at
the dockyard, going up to Kingston at night, and sleeping at the hotel.

It was during this interval that, one night about ten o'clock, a negro
presented himself at the hotel, inquiring for me; an