"That seems to be a good craft out there."
It was a vessel of two masts, slender and raking, and with a long, low hull—something of the model which a good many years later, went by the name of the Baltimore clipper.
"Yes, she is a beauty!" replied the captain.
"She looks as if she might be a good sailer."
"Good! I reckon she is. The Storm King can show her heels to any vessel that goes out of this port—or out of London either, for that matter."
"What is she engaged in?"
Here the captain gave a low whistle, and followed it up with a wink.
"Buccaneers occasionally, I suppose?"
"Oh, Captain Tolley is not so very condemned particular what he does—so that of course it is entirely lawful," and the captain winked again. "He owns his vessel, you see—carries her in his pocket—and has no condemned lot of land-lubber owners on shore who cannot get away if there is any trouble, from the condemned magistrates and constables."
"That is an advantage sometimes," said the young man. He was thinking of his own case probably.