rd, mates, thank the Lord, for
his mercy endureth forever! The other froggy is stuck hard and fast, and
our lads will just fetch out in time."

Old Navy-Mike had made no mistake. The consort of the captured frigate,
a corvette of twenty-four guns, had boldly stood on with the intention
of rounding to the wind, crossing the bows of the other twain, and
retrieving the fortunes of the day perhaps, by a broadside into the
shattered upper works of the terribly hampered British ship. The idea
was clever and spirited, and had a very fair chance of success; but
the land below the sea forefended it. Full of fine ardour and the noble
thirst for fame, speeding on for the palm of high enterprise and the
glory of the native land, alas, they stuck fast in a soft bit of English
sand! It was in their power now to swear by all they disbelieved in,
and in everything visible and too tangible; but their power was limited
strictly to that; and the faster they swore, the faster they were bound
to stick.

Springhaven dined well, with its enemy so placed, and a message from
the Leda by Jem Prater, that the fishing fleet was rescued, and would
be home to early supper, and so much to be talked about all dinner-time,
that for once in his life nearly everybody found it more expedient to
eat with his fork than his knife. Then all who could be spared from
washing up, and getting ready for further cookery, went duly to church
in the afternoon, to hear the good rector return humble thanks for a
Gracious Mercy to the British arms, and to see a young man, who had
landed with despatches, put a face full of gunpowder in at window, to
learn whether Admiral Darling was there.

CHAPTER XXII

A SPECIAL URGENCY

Admiral Darling was not in church. His duty to his country kept him
up the hill, and in close consultation with Captain Stubbard, who was
burning to fire his battery.

"I never knew such bad luck in all my life. The devil has been appointed
First Lord of the weather ever since I came to Springhaven." As Stubbard
declared these great truths he strode about in his little fortress,
delivering a kick at the heels of things which had no right to be
lumbering there. "To think that I should never have seen those beggars,
when but for the fog I could have smashed them right and left. Admiral,
these things make a Christian an infidel."

"Nonsense, sir!" said the Admiral, sternly, for a man of his kind
nature; "you forget that without the fog, or