"I was brought in the captain's gig."
"No equivocation, prisoner. I mean what brought you onto the quarter-deck?"
"I had the good luck," Harry said, "to prevent a very important dispatch falling into the hands of the French."
"The deuce you had!" the president said; "and how was that? That is to say," he said, "if there's no secret about it?"
"None at all," Harry said, "the matter was very simple;" and for the second time that morning he told the story.
When he had done there was a general exclamation of approval among those present, and the midshipmen crowded round him, shaking his hand, patting him on the back, and declaring that he was a trump.
"The prisoner is acquitted," the president said, "and is received as a worthy member of this noble body. Boy!"
"Yes, sir."
"Go to the purser and ask him to send in two bottles of rum for this honorable mess to drink the health of a new comrade."
Presently the boy returned.