The words of Wilder, aided as they were by an earnest and manly manner, laid a restraint on the mounting indignation of the choleric old seaman.  He listened gravely and intently to the rapid but clear tale which his lieutenant hastened to recount; and, ere the latter had done, he had more than half entered into those grateful, and certainly generous, feelings which had made the youth so reluctant to betray the obnoxious character of a man who had dealt so liberally by himself.  A few strong, and what might be termed professional, exclamations of surprise and admiration, occasionally interrupted the narrative; but, on the whole, he curbed his impatience and his feelings, in a manner that was sufficiently remarkable, when the temperament of the individual is duly considered.

“This is wonderful indeed!” he exclaimed, as the other ended; “and a thousand pities is it that so honest a fellow should be so arrant a knave.  But, Harry, we can never let him go at large after all, our loyalty and our religion forbid it.  We must tack ship, and stand after him; if fair words won’t bring him to reason, I see no other remedy than blows.”

“I fear it is no more than our duty, sir,” returned the young man, with a deep sigh.

“It is a matter of religion.—­And then the prating puppy, that he sent on board me, is no Captain, after all!  Still it was impossible to deceive me as to the air and manner of a gentleman.  I warrant me, some young reprobate of a good family, or he would never have acted the sprig so well.  We must try to keep his name a secret, Mr Ark, in order that no discredit should fall upon his friends.  Our aristocratic columns, though they get a little cracked and defaced, are, after all, the pillars of the throne, and it does not become us to let vulgar eyes look too closely into their unsoundness.”

“The individual who visited the ‘Dart’ was the Rover himself.”

“Ha! the Red Rover in my ship, nay, in my very presence!” exclaimed the old tar, in a species of honest horror.  “You are now pleased, sir, to trifle with my good nature.”

“I should forget a thousand obligations, ere I could be so bold.  On my solemn asseveration, sir, it was no other.”

“This is unaccountable! extraordinary to a miracle!  His disguise was very complete, I will confess to deceive one so well skilled in the human countenance.  I saw nothing, sir, of his shaggy whiskers heard nothing of his brutal voice, nor perceived any of those monstrous deformities which are universally acknowledged to distinguish the man.”

“All of which are no more than the embellishments of vulgar rumour, I fear me, sir, that the boldest and most dangerous of all our vices are often found under the most pleasing exteriors.”

“But this is not even a man of inches, sir.”

“His body is not large, but it contains the spirit of a giant.”

“And do you believe yonder ship, Mr Ark, to be the vessel that fought us in the equinox of March?”