o endeavour to intercept the frigate supposed to be
bound to the Havana. Thither the _Cerberus_ accordingly proceeded. To
wait in expectation of meeting a friend is a matter of no little
interest; but when an enemy is looked-for, and there is the prospect of
a battle, and a pretty tough one to boot, the excitement is immense. In
this instance it was tenfold: the enemy was no ordinary one; the object
was to win back a ship foully taken and disgracefully retained.

"There is no necessity to tell you to keep a sharp look-out," said the
captain to the officers of the watch, as he went below the first night
of their arrival on their cruising-ground.

"She'll be clever if she escapes us," was the answer. However, the
captain was on deck that night several times, as he was on many
subsequent nights, and sharp eyes were looking out all night and all
day, and still no enemy's frigate hove in sight. Paul was very
ambitious to be the first to see her. Whenever his duty would allow, he
was at the mast-head till the hot sun drove him down, or darkness made
his stay there, useless. He often dreamed, when in his hammock at
night, that he heard the drum beat to quarters, and jumping up, slipped
into his clothes, and hurried on deck, when finding all quiet, with no
small disappointment he had again to turn in. "The opportunity will
come, however, in some way or other," said Paul to himself as he tried
to go to sleep, and succeeded, as ship-boys generally do. "I must have
patience. Even if I were to be killed the next day, I should like to
have been a midshipman." Week after week passed away; no enemy
appeared. Now and then a prize was taken; but it was always the same
story--the frigate was still in Puerto Cabello. At length it became
known that the water and wood were running short, while it was a fact no
one would dispute, that the provisions were very bad. The _Cerberus_
must return to Jamaica. The disappointment was general.

"Och, the blackguards of Dons, to keep us waiting all this time, and not
to give us the satisfaction of thrashing them after all!" cried Paddy
O'Grady, as the matter was discussed in the midshipmen's berth.

"The fellow has probably slipped by us in the dark; but we'll catch him
some day; that's a comfort," observed Devereux.

"Our skipper is not a man to take that for granted without ascertaining
the fact," remarked Bruff.

He was right. Before a course was shaped for Jamaica, the _Cerberu