“Ay, this is not the first of our meetings! a little paint has changed her exterior, but I think I know the manner in which they have stepped her masts.”

“They are thought to rake more than is usual.”

“They are thought to do it, with reason.  Did you serve long aboard her?”

“Years.”

“And you left her”——­

“To join you.”

“Tell me, Wilder, did they treat you, too, as one of an inferior order?  Ha! was your merit called ‘provincial?’ Did they read America in all you did?”

“I left her, Captain Heidegger.”

“Ay, they gave you reason.  For once they have done me an act of kindness.  But you were in her during the equinox of March?”

Wilder made a slight bow of assent.

“I thought as much.  And you fought a stranger in the gale?  Winds, ocean, and man were all at work together.”

“It is true.  We knew you, and thought for a time that your hour had come.”

“I like your frankness.  We have sought each other’s lives like men, and we shall prove the truer friends, now that amity is established between us.  I will not ask you further of that adventure, Wilder; for favour, in my service, is not to be bought by treachery to that you have quitted.  It is sufficient that you now sail under my flag.”

“What is that flag?” demanded a mild but firm voice, at his elbow.

The Rover turned suddenly, and again met the riveted, calm, and searching eye of the governess.  The gleamings of some strangely contradictory passions crossed his features, and then his whole countenance changed to that look of bland courtesy which he most affected when addressing his captives.

“Here speaks a female, to remind two mariners of their duty!” he exclaimed.  “We have forgotten the civility of showing the stranger our bunting.  Let it be set, Mr Wilder, that we may omit none of the observances of nautical etiquette.”

“The ship in sight carries a naked gaft.”

“No matter; we shall be foremost in courtesy, Let the colours be shown.”

Wilder opened the little locker which contained the flags most in use, but hesitated which to select, out of a dozen that lay in large rolls within the different compartments.

“I hardly know which of these ensigns it is your pleasure to show,” he said, in a manner that appeared sufficiently like putting a question.

“Try him with the heavy-moulded Dutchman.  The Commander of so noble a ship should understand all Christian tongues.”

The lieutenant made a sign to the quarter-master on duty; and, in another minute, the flag of the United Provinces was waving at the peak of the “Dolphin.”  The two officers narrowly watched its effect on the stranger, who refused, however, to make any answering sign to the false signal they had just exhibited.

“The stranger sees we have a hull that was never made for the shoals of Holland.  Perhaps he knows us?” said the Rover, glancing at the same time a look of inquiry at his companion.