little salt water had oozed through the bullet-
hole and discoloured the leather; but that was
all. He breathed again.

"Thank Heaven I forgot all about it!" said
he: " It would have made a cur of me."

La Beresford's petty irritation against Dodd
melted at once before so great a thing: she
longed to make friends with him; but for once
felt timid: it struck her now all of a sudden that
she had been misbehaving. However, she caught
Dodd alone on the deck, and said to him softly,
"I want so to end our quarrel."

"Our quarrel, madam!" said he; "why, I
know of none: oh, about the light, eh? Well,
you see the master of a ship is obliged to be a
tyrant in some things."

"I make no complaint," said the lady, hastily,
and hung her head. "All I ask you is to forgive
one, who has behaved like a fool, without even
the excuse of being one; and will you give me
your hand, sir?"

"Ay, and with all my heart," said Dodd,
warmly, enclosing the soft little hand in his
honest grasp.

And with no more ado these two highflyers
ended one of those little misunderstandings petty
spirits nurse into a feud.

The ship being in port at the Cape, and two
hundred hammers tapping at her, Dodd went
ashore in search of Captain Robarts, and made
the Agra over to him in the friendliest way,
adding warmly that he had found every reason
to be satisfied with the officers and the crew. To
his surprise, Captain Robarts received all this
ungraciously. "You ought to have remained on
board, sir, and made me over the command on the
quarter deck." Dodd replied, politely, that it
would have been more formal. "Suppose I return
immediately, and man the side for you: and then
you board her, say in half an hour."

"I shall come when I like," replied Robarts,
crustily. "And when will you like to come?"
inquired Dodd, with imperturbable good humour.

"Now: this moment: and I'll trouble you to
come along with me."

"Certainly, sir."

They got a boat, and went out to the ship: on
coming alongside, Dodd thought to meet his
wishes by going first and receiving him; but the
jealous, cross-grained, fellow, shoved roughly
before him and led the way up the ship's side.
Sharpe and the rest saluted him: he did not
return the salute, but said hoarsely, "Turn the
hands up to muster."

When they were all aft he noticed one or two
with their caps on. "Hats off, and be—— to
you!" cried he. "Do you know where you are?
Do you know who you are looking at? If not,
I'll show you. I'm here to restore discipline to
this ship: so mind how you run athwart my
hawse: don't you play with the bull, my men;
or you'll find his horns——sharp. Pipe down!
Now, you sir, bring me the log-book!"

He ran his eye over it, and closed it
contemptuously: "Pirates, and hurricanes! I never
fell in with pirates nor hurricanes: I have heard
of a breeze, and a gale, but I never knew a seaman
worth his salt say 'hurricane.' Get another
log-book, Mr. Sharpe; put down that it begins
this day at noon; and enter, that Captain Robarts
came on deck, found the ship in a miserable
condition, took the command, mustered the officers
and men, and stopped the ship's company's grog
for a week, for receiving him with hats on!"

Even Sharpe, that walking Obedience, was
taken aback. "Stop—the ship's company's—
grog—for a week, sir?"

"Yes, sir, for a week: and, if you fling my
orders back in my face instead of clapping on
sail to execute them, I'll have you towed ashore
on a grating: your name is Sharpe; well, my name
is Damnedsharp; and so you'll find."

In short, the new captain came down on the
ship like a blight.

He was especially hard on Dodd: nothing that
commander had done was right, nor, had he done
the contrary, would that have been right: he was
disgracefully behind time; and he ought to have
put in to the Isle of France, which would have
retarded him: his rope bulwarks were lubberly;
his rudder a disgrace to navigation: he, Robarts,
was not so green as to believe that any master
had really sailed sixteen hundred miles with it,
and, if he had, more shame for him. Briefly a
marine criticaster.

All this was spoken at Dodd—a thing no male
does unless he is an awful snob—and grieved
him, it was so unjust. He withdrew wounded to
the little cabin he was entitled to as a passenger,
and hugged his treasure for comfort. He patted
the pocket-book, and said to it, "Never you mind.
The greater Tartar he is, the less likely to sink
you, or run you on a lee shore."

With all his love of discipline, Robarts was
not so fond of the ship as Dodd.

While his repairs were going on, he was
generally ashore; and by this means missed a
visit. Commodore Collier, one of the smartest
sailors afloat, espied the Yankee makeshift from
the quarter deck of his vessel, the Salamanca,
fifty guns. In ten minutes he was under the
Agra's stern inspecting it; then came on board,
and was received in form by Sharpe and the other
officers. "Are you the master of this ship, sir ?"
lie asked.

"No, commodore. I am the first mate: the
captain is ashore."

"I am sorry for it. I want to talk about his
rudder."

"Oh, he had nothing to do with that," replied
Sharpe, eagerly: "that was our dear old captain:
he is on board. Young gentleman! ask Captain
Dodd to oblige me by coming on deck! Hy!
and Mr. Fullalove too." "Young gentleman ?"
inquired Collier. "What-the devil officer is
that?"

"That is a name we give the middies; I don't
know why."

"Nor I neither! ha! ha!"