“There’s no use grumbling, Tom; all you have to think about is to do your duty with smartness, keep sober, and to avoid doing anything wrong, and with your education, which I wish I had, you are sure to get on.”
There is an old saying that it is useless to try and make a silk purse out of a sow’s ear. It is to be seen whether Tom Fletcher was like the sow’s ear.
Soon after the Lily left Jamaica she fell in with the Ariel. As a calm came on while they were in company, the officers of the two ships paid visits to each other. Rayner, recollecting that Mary Crofton’s brother Oliver was serving in her, got leave to go on board, for the purpose of making his acquaintance. He was much disappointed, on inquiring for him, to learn that he had been sent away a few days before, in charge of a prize, a brig called the Clerie, with orders to take her to Jamaica.
“She ought to have arrived before you left there,” observed the midshipman who told him this.
“How provoking that I should have missed him, though I do not think any such vessel came in while we were there,” answered Rayner. “His mother and sister are great friends of mine.”
“They must be nice people if they are like him, for Oliver Crofton is a capital fellow. He is as kind-hearted and even-tempered as he is brave and good-looking, and he is a favourite with all on board.”
“I am glad to hear that, though it makes me the more sorry that we should have missed each other, but I hope before long to fall in with him,” observed Rayner.
A breeze springing up, the officers retired to their respective vessels, and the Lily and Ariel parted company, the former rejoining the frigate. While off Antigua, the wind being from the eastward, the frigate made the signal of three strange sail to the south-west, and directly afterwards to give chase.
All the canvas they could carry was set. In a short time one of the strangers was seen to haul up to the northward, and the Lily was ordered to go in pursuit of her. She was apparently the smallest of the three, but was still likely to prove no mean antagonist. As the Lily appeared to be gaining on her, the commander gave the order to prepare for action. The frigate meantime was standing after the other two vessels. Before long her topsails, and finally her royals, disappeared beneath the horizon.
“We shall have her all to ourselves, and we’ll see how soon we can take her,” observed Mr Horrocks to the second lieutenant. “It is some time since you smelt powder, Lascelles.”