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head; her husband sat on one side of her, and Nellie on the other.

John Wilkes sat next to his master, and beyond him the elder of the

two apprentices. A seat was left between Nellie and the other

apprentice for Cyril.

"Now our crew is complete, John," Captain Dave said. "We have been

wanting a supercargo badly."

"Ay, ay, Captain Dave, there is no doubt we have been short-handed in

that respect; but things have been more ship-shape lately."

"That is so, John. I can make a shift to keep the vessel on her

course, but when it comes to writing up the log, and keeping the

reckoning, I make but a poor hand at it. It was getting to be as bad

as that voyage of the _Jane_ in the Levant, when the supercargo had

got himself stabbed at Lemnos."

"I mind it, Captain--I mind it well. And what a trouble there was

with the owners when we got back again!"

"Yes, yes," the Captain said; "it was worse work than having a brush

with a Barbary corsair. I shall never forget that day. When I went to

the office to report, the three owners were all in.

"'Well, Captain Dave, back from your voyage?' said the littlest of

the three. 'Made a good voyage, I hope?'

"First-rate, says I, except that the supercargo got killed at Lemnos

by one of them rascally Greeks.

"'Dear, dear,' said another of them--he was a prim, sanctimonious

sort--'Has our brother Jenkins left us?'

"I don't know about his leaving us, says I, but we left him sure

enough in a burying-place there.

"'And how did you manage without him?'

"I made as good a shift as I could, I said. I have sold all the

cargo, and I have brought back a freight of six tons of Turkey figs,

and four hundred boxes of currants. And these two bags hold the

difference.

"'Have you brought the books with you, Captain?'

"Never a book, said I. I have had to navigate the ship and to look

after the crew, and do the best I could at each port. The books are

on board, made out up to the day before the supercargo was killed,

three months ago; but I have never had time to make an entry since.

"They looked at each other like owls for a minute or two, and then

they all began to talk at once. How had I sold the goods? had I

charged the prices mentioned in the invoice? what percentage had I

put on for profit? and a lot of other things. I waited until they

were all out of breath, and then I said I had not bothered about

invoices. I knew pretty well the prices such things cost in England.

I clapped on so much more for the expenses of the voyage and a fair

profit. I could tell them what I had paid for the figs and the

currants, and for some bags of Smyrna sponges I had bought, but as to

the prices I had charged, it was too much to expect that I could

carry them in my head. All I knew was I had paid for the things I had

bought, I had paid all the port dues and other charges, I had

advanced the men one-fourth of their wages each month, and I had

brought them back the balance.

"Such a hubbub you never heard. One would have thought they would

have gone raving mad. The sanctimonious partner was the worst of the

lot. He threatened me with the Lord Mayor and the Aldermen, and went

on till I thought he would have had a fit.

"Look here, says I, at last, I'll tell you what I will do. You tell

me what the cargo cost you altogether, and put on so much for the

hire of the ship. I will pay you for them and settle up with the

crew, and take the cargo and sell it. That is a fair offer. And I

advise you to keep civil tongues in your heads, or I will knock them

off and take my chance before the Lord Mayor for assault and battery.

"With that I took off my coat and laid it on a bench. I reckon they

saw that I was in earnest, and they just sat as mum as mice. Then the

little man said, in a quieter sort of voice,--

"'You are too hasty, Captain Dowsett. We know you to be an honest man

and a good sailor, and had no suspicion that you would wrong us; but

no merchant in the City of London could hear that his business had

been conducted in such a way as you have carried it through without

for a time losing countenance. Let us talk the matter over reasonably

and quietly.'

"That is just what I am wanting, I said; and if there hasn't been

reason and quiet it is from no fault of mine.

"'Well, please to put your coat on again, Captain, and let us see how

matters stand!'

"Then they took their ink-horns and pens, and, on finding out what I

had paid for the figs and other matters, they reckoned them up; then

they put down what I said was due to the sailors and the mate and

myself; then they got out some books, and for an hour they were busy

reckoning up figures; then they opened the bags and counted up the

gold we had brought home. Well, when they had done, you would hardly

have known them for the same men. First of all, they went through all

their calculations again to be sure they had made no mistake about

them; then they laid down their pens, and the sanctimonious man

mopped the perspiration from his face, and the others smiled at each

other. Then the biggest of the three, who had scarcely spoken before,

said,--

"'Well, Captain Dowsett, I must own that my partners were a little

hasty. The result of our calculations is that the voyage has been a

satisfactory one, I may almost say very satisfactory, and that you

must have disposed of the goods to much advantage. It has been a new

and somewhat extraordinary way of doing business, but I am bound to

say that the result has exceeded our expectations, and we trust that

you will command the _Jane_ for many more voyages.'

"Not for me, says I. You can hand me over the wages due to me, and

you will find the _Jane_ moored in the stream just above the Tower.

You will find her in order and shipshape; but never again do I set my

foot on board her or on any other vessel belonging to men who have

doubted my honesty.

"Nor did I. I had a pretty good name among traders, and ten days

later I started for the Levant again in command of a far smarter

vessel than the _Jane_ had ever been."

"And we all went with you, Captain," John Wilkes said, "every man

jack of us. And on her very next voyage the _Jane_ was captured by

the Algerines, and I reckon there are some of the poor fellows

working as slaves there now; for though Blake did blow the place

pretty nigh out of water a few years afterwards, it is certain that

the Christian slaves handed over to him were not half those the Moors

had in their hands."

"It would seem, Captain Dowsett, from your story, that you can manage

very well without a supercargo?" Cyril said quietly.

"Ay, lad; but you see that was a ready-money business. I handed over

the goods and took the cash; there was no accounts to be kept. It was

all clear and above board. But it is a different thing in this ship

altogether, when, instead of paying down on the nail for what they

get, you have got to keep an account of everything and send in all

their items jotted down in order. Why, Nellie, your tongue seems

quieter than usual."

"You have not given me a chance, father. You have been talking ever

since we sat down to table."

Supper was now over. The two apprentices at once retired. Cyril would

have done the same, but Mistress Dowsett said,--

"Sit you still, Cyril. The Captain says that you are to be considered

as one of the officers of the ship, and we shall be always glad to

have you here, though of course you can always go up to your own

room, or go out, when you feel inclined."

"I have to go out three times a week to work," Cyril said; "but all

the other evenings I shall be glad indeed to sit here, Mistress

Dowsett. You cannot tell what a pleasure it is to me to be in an

English home like this."

It was not long before John Wilkes went out.

"He is off to smoke his pipe," the Captain said. "I never light mine

till he goes. I can't persuade him to take his with me; he insists it

would not be manners to smoke in the cabin."

"He is quite right, father," Nellie said. "It is bad enough having

you smoke here. When mother's friends or mine come in they are

well-nigh choked; they are not accustomed to it as we are, for a

respectable London citizen does not think of taking tobacco."

"I am a London citizen, Nellie, but I don't set up any special claim

to respectability. I am a sea-captain, though that rascally Greek

cannon-ball and other circumstances have made a trader of me, sorely

against my will; and if I could not have my pipe and my glass of grog

here I would go and sit with John Wilkes in the tavern at the corner

of the street, and I suppose that would not be even as respectable as

smoking here."

"Nellie doesn't mean, David, that she wants you to give up smoking;

only she thinks that John is quite right to go out to take his pipe.

And I must say I think so too. You know that when you have

sea-captains of your acquaintance here, you always send the maid off

to bed and smoke in the kitchen."

"Ay, ay, my dear, I don't want to turn your room into a fo'castle.

There is reason in all things. I suppose you don't smoke, Master

Cyril?"

"No, Captain Dave, I have never so much as thought of such a thing.

In France it is the fashion to take snuff, but the habit seemed to me

a useless one, and I don't think that I should ever have taken to

it."

"I wonder," Captain Dave said, after they had talked for some time,

"that after living in sight of the sea for so long your thoughts

never turned that way."

"I cannot say that I have never thought of it," Cyril said. "I have

thought that I should greatly like to take foreign voyages, but I

should not have cared to go as a ship's boy, and to live with men so

ignorant that they could not even write their own names. My thoughts

have turned rather to the Army; and when I get older I think of

entering some foreign service, either that of Sweden or of one of the

Protestant German princes. I could obtain introductions through which

I might enter as a cadet, or gentleman volunteer. I have learnt

German, and though I cannot speak it as I can French or English, I

know enough to make my way in it."

"Can you use your sword, Cyril?" Nellie Dowsett asked.

"I have had very good teaching," Cyril replied, "and hope to be able

to hold my own."

"Then you are not satisfied with this mode of life?" Mistress Dowsett

said.

"I am satisfied with it, Mistress, inasmuch as I can earn money

sufficient to keep me. But rather than settle down for life as a city

scrivener, I would go down to the river and ship on board the first

vessel that would take me, no matter where she sailed for."

"I think you are wrong," Mistress Dowsett said gravely. "My husband

tells me how clever you are at figures, and you might some day get a

good post in the house of one of our great merchants."

"Maybe it would be so," Cyril said; "but such a life would ill suit

me. I have truly a great desire to earn money: but it must be in some

way to suit my taste."

"And why do you want to earn a great deal of money, Cyril?" Nellie

laughed, while her mother shook her head disapprovingly.

"I wish to have enough to buy my father's estate back again," he

said, "and though I know well enough that it is not likely I shall

ever do it, I shall fight none the worse that I have such a hope in

my mind."

"Bravo, lad!" Captain Dave said. "I knew not that there was an estate

in the case, though I did hear that you were the son of a Royalist.

It is a worthy ambition, boy, though if it is a large one 'tis scarce

like that you will get enough to buy it back again."

"It is not a very large one," Cyril said. "'Tis down in Norfolk, but

it was a grand old house--at least, so I have heard my father say,

though I have but little remembrance of it, as I was but three years

old when I left it. My father, who was Sir Aubrey Shenstone, had

hoped to recover it; but he was one of the many who sold their

estates for far less than their value in order to raise money in the

King's service, and, as you are aware, none of those who did so have

been reinstated, but only those who, having had their land taken from

them by Parliament, recovered them because their owners had no

title-deeds to show, save the grant of Parliament that was of no

effect in the Courts. Thus the most loyal men--those who sold their

estates to aid the King--have lost all, while those that did not so

dispossess themselves in his service are now replaced on their land."

"It seems very unfair," Nellie said indignantly.

"It is unfair to them, assuredly, Mistress Nellie. And yet it would

be unfair to the men who bought, though often they gave but a tenth

of their value, to be turned out again unless they received their

money back. It is not easy to see where that money could come from,

for assuredly the King's privy purse would not suffice to pay all the

money, and equally certain is it that Parliament would not vote a

great sum for that purpose."

"It is a hard case, lad--a hard case," Captain Dave said, as he

puffed the smoke from his pipe. "Now I know how you stand, I blame,

you in no way that you long more for a life of adventure than to

settle down as a city scrivener. I don't think even my wife, much as

she thinks of the city, could say otherwise."

"It alters the case much," Mistress Dowsett said. "I did not know

that Cyril was the son of a Knight, though it was easy enough to see

that his manners accord not with his present position. Still there