sity, for the light was far
away.

"Yes, sir, now we are off," replied the boy, almost resentfully, and his
tone suggested that he would have liked to say, Why can't you tell me
where we are going? Possibly the officer took it in this light, for he
continued--

"This ought to be a bit of excitement for you, Burnett. We are after a
schooner bound for somewhere south, laden with contraband of war."

"War, sir?" whispered the lad excitedly.

"Well, some petty Central American squabble; and the captain has had
instructions that this schooner is going to steal out of port to-night.
Some one informed. We got the information yesterday."

"Contraband, sir?"

"Yes; guns and ammunition which ought not to be allowed to be shipped
from an English port against a friendly state.--Give way, my men!"

The rowers responded by making their stout ashen blades bend, and the
cutter went forward in jerks through the rather choppy sea.

"Then we shall take the schooner, sir?"

"Yes, my lad, if we can."

"Then that means prize-money."

"Why, Burnett, are you as avaricious as that?"

"No, sir; no, sir; I was thinking about the men."

"Oh, that's right. But don't count your chickens before they are
hatched."

"No, sir."

"We mayn't be able to board that vessel, and if we do, possibly it isn't
the one we want. It's fifty to one it isn't. Or it may be anything--
some trading brig or another going down south."

"Of course, sir. There are so many that pass."

"At the same time it may be the one we want."

"Yes, sir."

"And then we shall be in luck."

"Yes, sir."

"They must surrender to our armed boat."

Fitz Burnett had had little experience of the sea, but none as connected
with an excursion in a boat on a dark night, to board a vessel whose
sailing light could be seen in the distance.

They had not gone far before the lieutenant tabooed all talking.

"Still as you can, my lads," he said. "Sound travels far over the sea,
and lights are very deceptive."

The midshipman had already been thinking the same thing. He had often
read of Will-o'-the-Wisps, but never seen one, and this light seemed to
answer the description exactly, for there it was, dimly-seen for a few
moments, then brightening, and slowly going up and down. But the great
peculiarity was that now it seemed quite close at hand, now far distant,
and for the life of him he could not make out that they got any nearer.
He wanted to draw his companio