“You see now there are four men aboard, counting the boy as a man.
“Every rope is where it belongs, the crew are at their posts and they are not at all uneasy, from their looks, while there is a gray-head among ’em.
“They all seem to be enjoying the run, looking at the scenery and unmindful that they have got everybody watching them.
“Mates, I’ll tell you a story of that lad, for I know him now without looking through my glass.
“His name is Mark Merrill, and I saw him stand to fight a gang of five young roughs who set upon him,” and Jack Judson told the story of how Scott Clemmons and Ben Birney had smashed the toy ship which Mark Merrill had taken up to sell in B——, to get money to pay the doctor for going to see his mother.
As he was talking the schooner swept by in splendid style, winning a murmur of admiration from all on board the vessel of war, and when she came to an anchorage Jack Judson said with enthusiasm:
“He’s let go his mudhooks, and didn’t carry a stick or inch of canvas away, either.
“Yes, he’s my lad, and I’m going to ask leave to go and see him, too.”