Among those who watched the departure of the gallant privateersman stood Bertha Tempest and Pauline Jones.
Bertha's eyes were red, for she had parted again with the husband she so loved, while a glad light shone from the flashing orbs of Pauline.
Perhaps it was caused by the fact that Captain Harry Vernon—"Handsome Harry," as he was called in Washington—was to return to the Capital City with them.
Vernon was wealthy.
Not according to our ideas of wealth to-day, for we reckon riches to mean away up in the millions, whereas a man with two hundred thousand dollars in those days was looked upon as a veritable prodigy of wealth.
Harry Vernon had considerably over a hundred thousand dollars, and was well content with his fortune.
The Lively Bee had left the city, and was far out of sight.
In her track followed the True-blooded Yankee of Boston and the Lovely Lass of Salem, both first-class privateers, and both with records hard to beat.
Then came that fast-cruising schooner, Jack's Favorite, specially commissioned to search for the Essex, which had not been heard from for some time.