“But then there is the skiff, in which you came off, still alongside, and your own two stout fellows will soon twitch you to yon point. A propos of those two men, are they included in our arrangements?”
“They have never quitted me since my childhood, and would not wish to do it now.”
“It is a singular tie that unites two men, so oddly constituted, to one so different, by habits and education, from themselves,” returned the Rover, glancing his eye keenly at the other, and withdrawing it the instant he perceived his interest in the answer was observed.
“It is,” Wilder calmly replied; “but, as we are all seamen, the difference is not so great as one would at first imagine. I will now join them, and take an opportunity to let them, know that they are to serve in future under your orders.”
The Rover suffered him to leave the cabin, following to the quarter-deck, with a careless step, as if he had come abroad to breathe the open air of the night.
The weather had not changed, but it still continued dark, though mild. The same stillness as before reigned on the decks of the ship; and nowhere, with a solitary exception, was a human form to be seen, amid the collection of dark objects that rose on the sight, all of which Wilder well understood to be necessary fixtures in the vessel. The exception was the same individual who had first received our adventurer, and who still paced the quarter-deck, wrapped, as before, in a watch-coat. To this personage the youth now addressed himself, announcing his intention temporarily to quit the vessel. His communication was received with a respect that satisfied him his new rank was already known, although, as it would seem, it was to be made to succumb to the superior authority of the Rover.
“You know, sir, that no one, of whatever station, can leave the ship at this hour, without an order from the Captain,” was the calm, but steady reply.
“So I presume; but I have the order, and transmit it to you. I shall land in my own boat.”
The other, seeing a figure within hearing, which he well knew to be that of his Commander, waited an instant, to ascertain if what he heard was true. Finding that no objection was made, nor any sign given, to the contrary, he merely indicated the place where the other would find his boat.
“The men have left it!” exclaimed Wilder, stepping back in surprise, as he was about to descend the vessel’s side.