"Whose contents you could not know!"

"Whose contents I took to be some private orders, given by a lady who is
too much of a coquette herself, to accept your offer to sail in a vessel
of the same name."

"By Heavens, the fellow has reason in his inexplicable impudence!"
muttered Ludlow, pacing backward and forward beneath the shadow of the
tree. "The language and the acts of the girl are in contradiction; and I
am a fool to be trifled with, like a midshipman fresh broken loose from
his mother's apron-string. Harkee, Master-a-a--You've a name I suppose,
like any other straggler on the ocean."

"Yes. When the hail is loud enough to be heard, I answer to the call of
Thomas Tiller."

"Well then, Master Tiller, so clever a seaman should be glad to serve the
Queen."

"Were it not for duty to another, whose claim comes first, nothing could
be more agreeable than to lend a lady in distress a helping hand."

"And who is he, who may prefer a claim to your services, in competition
with the majesty of these realms?" demanded Ludlow, with a little of the
pretension that, when speaking of its privileges, is apt to distinguish
the manner of one who has been accustomed to regard royalty with
reverence.

"Myself. When our affairs call us the same way no one can be readier than