“I’ll not deny it. If my opinion be true, she will be found too heavy for the ‘Dolphin,’ and a vessel that offers little inducement for us to attempt to carry.”
“Her size?”
“You heard it from the black.”
“Your followers know her also?”
“It would be difficult to deceive a topman in the cut and trim of sails among which he has passed months, nay years.”
“I understand the ‘new cloths’ in her top-gallant-royal! Mr Wilder, your departure from that vessel has been recent?”
“As my arrival in this.”
The Rover continued silent for several minutes communing with his own thoughts. His companion made no offer to disturb his meditations; though the furtive glances, he often cast in the direction of the other’s musing eye, betrayed some little anxiety to learn the result of his self-communication.
“And her guns?” at length his Commander abruptly demanded.
“She numbers four more than the ‘Dolphin.’”