rather the mist--for it
was only that--those fellows would never have come within range. We have
very great blessings to be thankful for, though the credit falls not to
our battery. The Frenchmen fought wonderfully well, as well as the best
Englishman could have done, and to capture them both is a miracle of
luck, if indeed we can manage to secure them. My friend, young Honyman,
of the Leda, has proved himself just what I said he would be; and has
performed a very gallant exploit, though I fear he is severely wounded.
But we shall know more now, for I see a young fellow jumping up the
hill, like a kangaroo, and probably he comes for orders. One thing we
have learned, Stubbard, and must take the hint to-morrow--put a hut on
the Haven head, and keep a watchman there. Why, bless my heart, it is
Blyth Scudamore that's coming! There is nobody else that can skip like
that."

The young lieutenant entered between two guns--the gunners were
dismissed in great disgust to dinner--with his pleasant face still a
little grimed with gunpowder, and flushed by his hurry up the steep
hill-side.

"This for you, sir," he said, saluting the Admiral, presenting his
letter, and then drawing back; "and I am to wait your convenience for
reply."

"What next will the service come to," asked the Admiral of Captain
Stubbard, "when a young man just commissioned gives himself such mighty
airs? Shake hands, Blyth, and promise you will come and dine with us,
unless you are ordered to return on board at once. How is your good
captain? I knew him when he wore Nankins. Jem Prater brought word that
he was wounded. I hope it is not serious."

"No, sir; not much to speak of. He has only lost three fingers. That was
why I wrote this letter--or report, I ought to call it, if anybody else
had written it. Oh, sir! I cannot bear to think of it! I was fifth luff
when the fight began, and now there is only one left above me, and he is
in command of our biggest prize, the Ville d'Anvers. But, Admiral, here
you will find it all, as I wrote it, from the lips, when they tied up
the fingers, of Captain Honyman."

"How could you tie them up when they were gone?" Captain Stubbard
enquired, with a sneer at such a youth. He had got on very slowly in his
early days, and could not bear to see a young man with such vacancies
before him. "Why, you are the luckiest lad I ever saw! Sure to go up at
least three steps. How well you must have kept out of it! And how happy
you