"Yes, cut down my hammock! Don't you see the netting has been cut?"
"The truth ye tell, quarter-master; some haythin has surely been cutting yer netting. Now who could have done that? I hope the culprit may be found, that's all."
And the face of the quarter-master himself did not evince more savage fury than the Irishman. He was the first to report it to the lieutenant, and in his zeal actually burst in on the captain himself and told of the disaster, volunteering his services to hunt down the culprit.
"Find him!" thundered the captain, his face white with rage. "Find him, and, by the trident of Neptune, I swear I'll see his backbone!"
No one in the whole ship was as zealous as the Irishman in searching for the culprit; but he took care never to find him.
Captains of men-of-war are fond of delicacies, and the captain had a fine fat pig, which he intended for a special feast to be given for his officers. Terrence, through his zeal, became such a favorite, that he was even permitted to superintend the cooking.
The quarter-master's favorite dog, which was as fat as the pig, suddenly disappeared the day before the feast, and Terrence had a search instituted for him without avail, and gave it out as his opinion that the dog had fallen overboard. On the same day the officers feasted on roast pig, Terrence's mess had roast pig. The officers declared that their roast pig was very tender, but that the flavor was strong and peculiar! The ship's surgeon afterward said he never saw the bones of a pig so resemble the bones of a dog. There had been but one pig aboard, and had it been known that Terrence dined on roast pig also, there might have been some grave suspicions.
Shortly after this event, there were some changes in the British navy. Captain Snipes was supplanted in command of the Macedonian by Captain Carden. Fernando, Terrence and the negro were shortly after transferred to the war-sloop Sea Shell, Captain Bones, while poor Sukey was still left aboard the Macedonian. Shortly after these changes Captain Snipes and Mr. Hugh St. Mark, the silent gunner, were transferred to the man-of-war Xenophon. Thus we see, by those interminable and inexplicable changes constantly going on in the royal navy the friends were separated. There may be some reason for those constant changes in the navy; but they are not apparent to the sagest landsman living.
Captain Conkerall had made himself so ridiculous in Baltimore, that he had been forced to quit the service in order to escape he ridicule of his fellow officers. This left Lieutenant Matson in command of the Xenophon until Captain Snipes was assigned to that duty.
Fernando Stevens felt some regrets in leaving the Macedonian. One's very sufferings may endear them to a place. But Fernando's chief regret was in leaving the friend of his childhood. Sukey and he shed manly tears as each saw the face of his friend fade from view.