“In what does he mistake?”
“In supposing that he will encounter an ordinary freebooter—one coarse, rapacious, ignorant, and inexorable like others of”——
“Of what, sir?”
“I would have said, of his class; but a mariner like him we speak of forms the head of his own order.”
“We will call him, then, by his popular name, Mr Wilder—a rover. But, answer me, is it not remarkable that so aged and experienced a seaman should come to this little frequented sea in quest of a ship whose pursuits should call her into more bustling scenes?”
“He may have traced her through the narrow passages of the islands, and followed on the course she has last been seen steering.”
“He may indeed,” returned the Rover, musing intently “Your thorough mariner knows how to calculate the chances of winds and currents, as the bird finds its way in air. Still a description of the ship should be needed for a clue.”
The eyes of Wilder, not withstanding every effort to the contrary, sunk before the piercing gaze they encountered, as he answered,—
“Perhaps he is not without that knowledge, too.”
“Perhaps not. Indeed, he gave me reason to believe he has an agent in the secrets of his enemy. Nay, he expressly avowed the same, and acknowledged that his prospects of success depended on the skill and information of that individual, who no doubt has his private means of communicating what he learns of the movements of those with whom he serves.”