"O, don't ask me. It makes me mad to think of it."
"Well," said Harry, taking a good survey of his friend, who was as wet and begrimmed as a boy could be, "if she looks as bad as you do I don't want to see her."
"She does, and worse. Go down and look at her, Harry, and then tell me if you think any punishment too severe for that fellow. But don't this night's work beat you?"
"Beat is no name for it; I am taken all aback. If any one had told me that Tom Newcombe was as reckless as he has shown himself to be, I should have laughed at him. What do you suppose he intends to do? Where is he now?"
"I wish I could tell you. We must hunt him up, and when we have captured him we can find out all we want to know."
The second lieutenant went below to put on dry clothing, and Harry walked forward to take a look at things. He found that ten minutes had made a great change in the appearance of his little vessel. The effects of the fire were visible on deck about the hatchway, and on the ladder that led below. The wood-work of the galley was charred and smoked; the furniture was scattered about over the floor and broken and battered; the stove was overturned; the water stood in little pools all over the floor, and, altogether, it presented so desolate an appearance that the lieutenant was sorry he had come down to look at it.
"She isn't much like the neat little vessel of which I have been so proud," soliloquized Harry, as he returned to the deck. "But I am thankful for one thing, and that is, her sailing qualities are not injured, and we can use them to bring that fellow to justice."
Then, turning to the officer of the deck, he instructed him to put two men on the forecastle with orders to keep a bright lookout for the jolly-boat, and also for a white skiff with a crew of half a dozen boys.
Meanwhile the jolly-boat flew down the harbor, propelled by two good oarsmen. Midshipman Richardson sat bolt upright in the stern sheets, examining each side of the harbor as well as he could through the darkness, and hoping it might be his good fortune to put "just one eye on that Tom Newcombe." He did not stop to consider that it was reported, by the anchor-watch, that Tom was backed up by his old pirate crew, and that, if such was the case, he would have six desperate fellows to contend with. He cared nothing for the difference in numbers. He had but two companions, but he was sure that, having justice on his side, he could overcome all obstacles.
"There's a boat right ahead, sir," said the bow oarsman. "I can hear it."