any sailor he saw disengaged and
wearing a look that invited interrogation.

"You seem to want to know a lot all at once, youngster," one said.

"I have got to learn it sooner or later," Will replied, "and it is just as
well to learn as much as I can while I have time on my hands. I expect I
shall get plenty to do when I join a ship at Portsmouth. May I go up the
rigging?"

"That you may not. You don't suppose that His Majesty's ships are intended
to look like trees with rooks perched all over them? You will be taught
all that in due time. There is plenty to learn on deck, and when you know
all that, it will be time enough to think of going aloft. You don't want
to become a Blake or a Benbow all at once, do you?"

"No," Will laughed, "it will be time to think of that in another twenty
years."

The sailor broke into a roar of laughter.

"Well, there is nothing like flying high, young 'un; but there is no
reason why in time you should not get to be captain of the fore-top or
coxswain of the captain's gig. I suppose either of these would content
you?"

"I suppose it ought," Will said with a merry laugh. "At any rate it will
be time to think of higher posts when I have gained one of these."

The voyage to Portsmouth was uneventful. They stopped at several
receiving-stations on their way down, and before they reached their
destination they had gathered a hundred and twenty men. Will and Tom were
astonished at the bustle and activity of the port. Frigates and men-of-war
lay off Portsmouth and out at Spithead; boats of various sizes rowed
between them, or to and from the shore. Never had they imagined such a
scene; the enormous bulk of the men-of-war struck them with wonder. Will
admired equally the tapering spars and the more graceful lines of the
frigates and corvettes, and his heart thrilled with pride as he felt that
he too was a sailor, and a portion, however insignificant, of one of these
mighty engines of war.

The officer in command of the receiving-ship at Whitby had passed on to
the captain of the cutter what had been told him of the two boys by the
lieutenant of the _Antelope_, and he in turn related the story to one of
the chief officers of the dockyard. It happened that they were the only
two boys that had been brought down, and the dockyard official said it
would be a pity to separate them.

"I will put them down as part of the crew of the _Furious_. I want a few
specially strong and active men for h