"'Wonderful light-sparred for her size that brig, sir,' said the third officer, dropping his glass. 'Ay, so she is, Mr Small,' replied Captain Williamson; 'what would you call her then? You've as good knowledge of craft as any man, Mr Small, I think.' 'Why,' said the old mate, screwing his eye harder for a long look, 'I'd say she's—not a cruiser, Captain Williamson—no, nor a Greenock Indyman—nor a——' 'Oh!' said Finch, 'some African timberer or other, I daresay, Small.' 'Well, Mr Finch,' said the third mate, handing him the glass, 'mayhap you'll just say yourself, sir.' 'No, no, Mr Small,' said the captain; 'I'd trust to you as soon as any man, sir, in a matter of the kind.' 'Why, the hull of her's wonderful Yankee-like, sir,' said Small again; 'I'm thinking they've been and squared her out of a schooner—and made a bad job of it too, sir! Bless us! what a lean-headed pair o' taups'ls—as high as our fore one, sir.' Suddenly the old mate gave his thigh a slap, and laid down his glass on the capstan; 'Lor', sir!' said he, 'that's the thing; she's nothing more nor less but a John Crapeau, Captain Williamson!'
"'I daresay you're right, Mr Small,' said the skipper, taking the glass; 'just so—ay, ay—I thought it myself!' 'Pity Old Nap's boxed up yonder nowadays, then, sir,' said the first officer, rubbing his hands and pointing to eastward, where he thought St Helena was; 'why, sir, we should have the peppering of the Frenchman; I don't suppose we'd need to care though she were twice the size—and what's more, we want fresh water before seeing the Cape, sir!' 'Well,' said the old skipper, laughing, 'that is the worst of it, Finch! As for spirit, you've as much as any man, Mr Finch, and I do think we'd know how to take the weather-hand of him—eh?' 'I'll be bound we should!' said Finch, laughing too. As for the Frenchman, both Westwood and I had made him out by his rig at once, thanks to man-o'-war practice; but we smiled to each other at the notion of making a prize of Monsieur, under Finch's management, with not a gun that could have been used for half a day, and everything else at sixes and sevens.
"In a little while it was proposed amongst the cadets, hot as the calm was, to make a party to go and see the French vessel. Ford of course was at the head of it. Winterton thought they would no doubt have plenty of champagne on board, and some others, who could row, wanted to try their hands. Accordingly the captain's gig was got ready, a sort of awning rigged over it, and two or three of them got in; when one, who was Miss Fortescue's cousin, persuaded her to join, if Mr Rollock would come. Then the brigadier, being rather a good-humoured man, said he should like to face the French once more, and Daniel Snout shoved himself eagerly in without asking, by your leave. One of the men was sent to take charge; and as there was room still, I was just going to jump in too, for the amusement of it, when Mrs Brady hurried to the taffrail with her parasol up, and said, if the brigadier went she should go as well—in fact, the old woman's jealousy of her rib was always laughably plain. 'Hang it! then,' thought I, 'catch me putting myself in the same boat with her! the same ship is enough in all conscience!' So away they were lowered off the davits, and began pulling in tolerable style for the brig, a couple of hours' good work for such hands at midday, smooth water as it was.
"'Now, gentlemen,' said the first officer briskly, as we looked after them dipping over the long bright blue heave—'now, gentlemen, and ladies also, if you please, we'll have another party as soon as the men get their dinner—give these gentlemen a full hour's law, we'll overhaul them. See the larboard quarter-boat clear, Jacobs.' It was just the least possible hazy again behind the brig in the distance, and as the judge stood talking to his daughter on the poop, I heard her say, 'Is the other vessel not coming nearer already, papa? See how much more distinct its sails are this moment—there!—one almost observes the white canvas!' 'Pooh, Lota, child!' answered Sir Charles, 'that cannot be—'tis perfectly calm, don't you know?' In fact, however, Lota showed a sailor's eye for air, and I was noticing it myself; but it was only the air made it look so. 'Ah! now,' exclaimed she again, ''tis as distant as ever! That must have been the light'; besides, the brig had been lifting on a wide swell.
"'I beg pardon, Sir Charles,' said the mate, coming up and taking off his cap, 'but might I use the freedom—perhaps yourself and Miss Hyde would like to visit the French brig?' The judge looked at his daughter as much as to ask if she would like it. 'Oh yes! so much!' exclaimed she, her bright eyes sparkling, 'shall we?' 'No! Not I!' said Sir Charles. 'I shall take my siesta. Quite safe, sir—eh?' 'Oh, quite safe, Sir Charles!' said Finch, 'a dead calm, sir—I'll take the utmost care you may be sure, Sir Charles—as safe as the deck, sir!' 'Oh, very well,' replied the judge, and he walked down to see after his tiffin. The young lady was going down the quarter-gallery stair, when I caught my opportunity to say— 'I hope you'll excuse it, Miss Hyde, ma'am—but I do trust you'll not risk going in the boat so far, just now!' Half a minute after I spoke, she turned round, and looked at me with a curious sort of expression in her charming face, which I couldn't make out—whether it was mischievous, whether it was pettish, or whether 'twas inquisitive.
'Dear me!' said she, 'why—do you——' 'The weather might change,' I said, looking round about, 'and I shouldn't wonder if it did—or a swell might get up—or——' 'I must say, Mr—Mr Collins,' said she, laughing slightly, 'you are very gloomy in your anticipations—almost timorous, I declare! I wonder how you came to be so weather-wise! But why did you not advise poor Mrs Brady, now?' I couldn't see her face as she spoke, but the tone of the last words made me feel I'd have given worlds to look round and see what it was like at the moment. 'Perhaps, ma'am,' said I, 'you may remember the rain?' 'Well, we shall see, sir!' replied she, glancing up with a bright sparkle in her eye for an instant, but only toward the end of the spanker-boom, as it were; and then tripping down the stair.
"I kept watching the gig pull slowly toward the brig in the distance, and the cutter making ready on our quarter till the men were in, with Jacobs amongst them; where they sat waiting in no small glee for the mate and his party, who came up a few minutes after; and I was just beginning to hope that Violet Hyde had taken my advice, when she and another young lady came out of the round-house, dressed for the trip, and the captain gallantly handed them in. 'My compliments to the French skipper, Mr Finch,' said the captain, laughing, 'and if he ain't better engaged, happy to see him to dinner at—two bells [18] in the dog-watch, we'll make it!' 'Ay, ay, sir,' said Finch. 'Now then!—all ready?' 'Smythe's coming yet.' said a 'writer.' 'We can't wait any longer for him,' replied the mate; 'ease away the falls, handsomely, on deck!' 'Stop,' said I, 'I'll go then!' 'Too late, young gentleman,' answered the mate, sharply, 'you'll cant us gunnel up, sir!—lower away, there!' However, I caught hold of a rope and let myself down the side, time enough to jump lightly into her stern-sheets the moment they touched the water. The officer stared at me as he took the yoke-lines to steer, but he said nothing, and the boat shoved off; while Miss Hyde's blue eyes only opened out, as it were, for an instant, at seeing me drop in so unceremoniously; and her companion laughed.
"'I shouldn't have supposed you so nimble, Mr Collins!' said the writer, looking at me through his eyeglass. 'Oh,' said I, 'Ford and I have practised climbing a good deal lately.' 'Ha! ha!' said the civilian, 'shouldn't be surprised, now, if your friend were to take the navigation out of Mr Finch's hands, some day!' 'Bless me, yes, sir!' said Finch, with a guffaw, as he sat handling the lines carelessly, and smiling to the ladies, with his smart cap over one ear; 'to be sure—ha! ha! ha!—it's certain, Mr Beveridge! Wouldn't you take the helm here, sir?' to me. 'Oh, thank you, no, sir!' replied I, modestly, 'I'm not quite so far yet—but we've got a loan of Hamilton Moore and Falconer's Dictionary from the midshipmen, and mean to——' 'No doubt you'll teach us a trick or two yet!' said Finch, with a sneer. 'Now, for instance,' said I, coolly, 'aloft yonder, you've got the throat halliards jammed in the block with a gasket, and the mizzen-topsail cluelines rove wrong side of it, which Hamilton Moore distinctly——'
"'Hang the lubber that did it, so they are!' exclaimed the mate, looking through the spy-glass we had with us. 'Now you've your jibs hauled down, sir,' continued I, 'and if a squall came on abeam, no doubt they'd wish to shorten sail from aft, and keep her away—however, she would broach-to at once, as Hamilton Moore shows must——' 'You and Hamilton Moore may——Well, no fear of a squall just now, at any rate, ladies,' said he. 'Stretch out, men—let's head upon Mr Ford and his gig, yet!'
"Terribly hot it was, close to the water, and so stifling that you scarce could breathe, while the long glassy swell was far higher than one thought it from the ship's deck; however, we had an awning hoisted, and it refreshed one a little both to hear the water and feel it below again, as the cutter went sliding and rippling over it to long slow strokes of the oars; her crew being all men-o'-war's-men, that knew how to pull together and take it easy. The young ladies kept gazing rather anxiously at the big old Seringapatam, as she rose and dropped heavily on the calm, amused though they were at first by a sight of their late home turning 'gable' on to us, with her three masts in one, and a white straw hat or two watching us from her taffrail; whereas, ahead, they only now and then caught a glimpse of the brig's upper canvas, over a hot, hazy, sullen-looking sweep of water as deep-blue as indigo—with six hairy brown breasts bending before them to the oars, and as many pair of queer, rollicking, fishy sort of eyes, fixed steadily on the bonnets aft, in a shame-faced, down-hill kind of way, like fellows that couldn't help it. In fact, I noticed a curious grin now and then on every one of the men's faces, and a look to each other when they caught sight of myself sitting behind the mate, as he paid out his high-flying speeches; Jacobs, again, regarding me all the while out of the whites of his eyes, as it were, in a wooden, unknowing fashion fit to have made a cat laugh—seeing he never missed his mark for one moment, and drew back his head at every pull with the air of a drunken man keeping sight of his own waistcoat buttons.