e west, disturbed
him. He did not open his eyes, but he clenched his fists, and muttered
incoherently. Presently with a start he awoke. He rubbed his eyes, and
then sat up. "What a queer dream!" he said aloud.

The ledge where he sat was not a very safe place. There was scarcely
room for him to move, and directly below him was the sea. But this boy
was quite as much at home on high rocks or in the water as he was on
land, and he was very fond of looking out for distant sailing vessels
and wondering where they might be bound.

He glanced along the north shore to the little fishing hamlet of
Arbigland where he lived. He saw that the tide had come in rapidly while
he slept, and that the path to the shore was now covered. He stood up
and stretched his bare arms, brown with sunburn, high over his head.
Then he started to climb down from the ledge by the jutting points of
rock.

He was as sure-footed as any mountaineer. His clothes were old, so
neither rock nor sea could do them much harm; his feet were bare. He was
short but very broad, and his muscles were strong and supple. When he
came to the foot of the rock he stood a moment, hunting for the deepest
pool at its base, then, loosing his hold, he dove into the water.

In a few seconds he was up again, floating on his back; and a little
later he struck out, swimming hand over hand, toward a sandy beach to
the south.

A young man, wearing the uniform of a lieutenant in the British navy,
stood on the beach, watching the boy swim. When the latter had landed
and shaken the water from him much as a dog would, the man approached
him. "Where on earth did you come from, John Paul?" he asked with a
laugh. "The first thing I knew I saw you swimming in from sea."

"I was out on the rock asleep," said the boy. "The tide came up and cut
me off. And oh, Lieutenant Pearson, I had the strangest dream! I dreamt
I was in the middle of a great sea-fight. I was captain of a ship, and
her yard-arms were on fire, and we were pouring broadsides into the
enemy, afraid any minute that we'd sink. How we did fight that ship!"

The young officer's eyes glowed. "And I hope you may some day, John!" he
exclaimed.

"But the strangest part was that our ship didn't fly the English flag,"
said the boy. "At the masthead was a flag I'd never seen, red and white
with a blue field filled with stars in the corner. What country's flag
is that?"

Pearson thought for a moment. "There's no such flag," he s