Without further hesitation Captain Bart agreed to the proposal.
“I trust to your honour, Captain Benbow,” he said.
“You may rest assured that, as you have given your word to allow the Elephant to continue her voyage unmolested, you will be able to leave this ship whenever you desire.”
The three Captains were soon seated in the comfortable cabin of the Benbow frigate. Captain Benbow, having regarded Captain Bart for an instant, put out his hand, exclaiming, “Why, we served together as lads for two years or more under Admiral Ruyter—surely I am not mistaken—and saw a good deal of pretty hard fighting.”
“You are perfectly right,” answered Captain Bart. “I remained with him till I was twenty-one and a half years of age, when I returned to my native town of Dunkerque, not supposing at the time that I should have to fight against my old friends the Dutch.”
“You and I must be about the same age, Captain Bart,” observed Benbow, after they had been comparing notes of certain events which had taken place.
“I was born in the year 1650,” said Bart.
“Very same year that I first saw the light,” observed Benbow. “We both of us have been ploughing the salt water pretty nearly ever since.”
“For my part I expect to plough it to the end of my days, as most of my ancestors have done; for we men of Dunkerque are born seamen, and fond of the ocean,” said Bart.
“And to my belief I am the first of my race that ever went to sea,” said Benbow.