“I hope you find our laws sufficiently firm, Mr Wilder.”
“Want of firmness is not their fault; if the same quality can always be observed in administering them, it is well,” returned the other, rising to salute his superior. “I have never found such rigid rules, even in”——
“Even in what, sir?” demanded the Rover, perceiving that his companion hesitated.
“I was about to say, ‘Even in his Majesty’s service,’” returned Wilder, slightly colouring. “I know not whether it may be a fault, or a recommendation, to have served in a King’s ship.”
“It is the latter; at least I, for one, should think it so, since I learned my trade in the same service.”
“In what ship?” eagerly interrupted Wilder.
“In many,” was the cold reply. “But, speaking of rigid rules, you will soon perceive, that, in a service where there are no courts on shore to protect us, nor any sister-cruisers to look after each other’s welfare, no small portion of power is necessarily vested in the Commander. You find my authority a good deal extended.”
“A little unlimited,” said Wilder, with a smile that might have passed for ironical.
“I hope you will have no occasion to say that it is arbitrarily executed,” returned the Rover, without observing, or perhaps without letting it appear that he observed, the expression of his companion’s countenance. “But your hour is come, and you are now at liberty to land.”
The young man thanked him, with a courteous inclination of the head, and expressed his readiness to go. As they ascended the ladder into the upper cabin, the Captain expressed his regret that the hour, and the necessity of preserving the incognito of his ship, would not permit him to send an officer of his rank ashore in the manner he could wish.