As I was walking the quarter-deck, delighted with my success, Cross, who had the watch and was by my side, said, “I think, Captain Keene, you did very right in hoisting French colours.”
“Why, yes, Cross,” replied I; “she is a very fast sailer, that is evident, and she might have escaped us.”
“That’s not what I mean, Captain Keene.”
“What then, Cross?”
“Why, sir, I would not tell you why I wished you to hoist French colours at the time, because I was afraid that, if I did, you would not have done so; but my reason was, that it would make a great difference in our prize-money, and I want some, if you do not.”
Even then I could not imagine what Cross meant, for it never came into my head, and I turned round and looked at him for an explanation.
“Why, Captain Keene, if we had hoisted English colours, the schooner would have made sail and gone off, and, even if she had not done so, the Indiaman would have held out till we came down; but as he hauled down his colours, and was taken possession of by the enemy, he now becomes a recapture, and I expect the salvage of that Indiaman will be of more value to us than two or three of such schooners.”
“That certainly did not enter my head when I hoisted the colours, Cross, I must confess.”
“No, sir, that I saw it did not, but it did mine.”
“It’s hardly fair, Cross.”