ctor. "A fever is coming on, and the sooner
you are out of this the better. I'll speak to the captain about you."

The fever did come on. Paul was sent to the hospital on shore, where he
was tenderly nursed by Devereux, aided by O'Grady; the _Cerberus_,
meantime, having sailed on a cruise under the command of Mr Order. As
no ship of war was going home, Captain Walford took his passage in a
sugar-laden merchantman, having Devereux and O'Grady with him, and he
got Paul also invalided home. Paul's chief source of delight was the
thought that he should present himself to his mother and sisters as a
real veritable midshipman, in the uniform he so often in his dreams had
worn, and of the happiness he should afford them. Their ship was not a
very fast one, though she could carry a vast number of hogsheads of
sugar, and was remarkably comfortable. The captain was more like a kind
father and a good-natured tutor than most skippers, and they all had a
very pleasant time of it. Paul had had no time for study while he was a
ship-boy, and so the captain advised him to apply himself to navigation
and to general reading; and he did so with so much good will, that,
during the voyage, he made considerable progress. They were nearing the
mouth of the Channel.

"In another week we shall be at home," said Paul.

"Yes, it will be jolly," answered Devereux. "You must come and see me,
you know, at the Hall, and I'll introduce you to my family, and they'll
make you amends somehow or other, if they can; they must, I am
determined."

"Thank you heartily, Devereux," answered Paul; "but the short time I am
likely to be at home I must spend with my mother, and though I know your
kind wishes, people generally will not look with much respect on a
person who was till lately a mere ship-boy."

"No fear of that, Gerrard; but we'll see, we'll see," answered Devereux.

"A sail on the weather bow," shouted the look-out from aloft, "standing
across our course."

The West Indiaman, the _Guava_ was her name, went floundering on as
before; the master, however, who had gone aloft, kept his glass on the
stranger. After some time he came down, his countenance rather paler
than usual.

"She has tacked and is standing towards us," he said, addressing Captain
Walford.

"Sorry to hear it, Mr Turtle. Is she big or little?"

"Why, sir, she has very square yards, and has much the look of a foreign
man-of-war," answered the master.

"Umph! If s