“Yes, Bob, not very far from it.”
“Well, I suppose I must say Mister Keene for the future.”
“You may call be what you like, Bob; you have been a good friend to me.”
“Well, sir, I only hope that Captain Delmar will make you a post-captain, as he says, and that you’ll get a fine frigate, and I’ll be your coxswain; but that’s a long way to look to, and we shan’t have any more councils of war on the gangway then.”
“No; but we may in the cabin, Cross.”
“A large sail on the starboard bow,” cried the look-out man forward.
“A large sail on the starboard bow,” reported the mate of the watch.
My glass was on the capstern, and I ran for it, and went forward to examine the vessel, although my duty as signal midshipman was ended at sunset.
“What do you make of it, Mr Keene?” said the officer of the watch.
“I think she is a man-of-war; but it is so dark, that I cannot make her out very clearly.”