"Stand fast!" shouted Cuffe, fearful the men might get the start of-him. "Make your mates take their calls from their mouths, sir. Two more guns, Winchester, and I am the happiest man in Nelson's fleet!"
A second gun did come, just as these words were uttered: then followed a breathless pause of half a minute, when a third smothered but unequivocal report succeeded.
"It must be a salute, sir," Griffin uttered, inquiringly..
"The interval is too long. Listen! I hope to God we have had the last!"
Every ear in the ship listened intently, Cuffe holding his watch in his hand. Two entire minutes passed, and no fourth gun was heard. As second after second went by, the expression of the captain's countenance changed, and then he waved his hand in triumph.
"It's as it should be, gentlemen," he said. "Take the prisoner below, Mr. Winchester. Unreeve the rope, and send that d--d grating off the gun. Mr. Strand, pipe down."
Raoul was immediately led below. As he passed through the after-hatch, all the officers on the quarter-deck bowed to him, and not a man was there in the ship who did not feel the happier for the reprieve.
CHAPTER XXIII.
"He saw with his own eyes the moon was round,
Was also certain that the earth was square,
Because he'd journeyed fifty miles, and found
No sign that it was circular anywhere."
Don Juan.