"'Cool impetuosity' is very good, Captain," added Christy with a laugh.

"But that is precisely what I mean, my boy, and no two words could
express the idea any better. You cannot carry an enemy by boarding with
the same precision you man the yards on a ceremonious occasion, or as a
regiment of soldiers go on dress parade. It requires vim, dash, spirit.
The officers named have this quality in a very considerable degree, yet
not enough of it. But what they lack more is ingenuity, fertility in
expedients, and the expansive view which enables them to take advantage
promptly of circumstances. You never lose your head, Christy."

"I never knew the gentlemen named to lose their heads, and I have always
regarded them as model officers," replied the first lieutenant.

"And so they are: you are quite right, my dear boy; but it is possible
for them to be all you say, and yet, like the young man of great
possessions in the Scripture, to lack one thing. I should not dare to
exchange my second and third lieutenants for any others if I had the
opportunity."

"I confess that I do not understand you yet, Captain."

The commander rose from his seat, stretched himself, and then looked
about the deck. Taking his camp-stool in his hand he carried it over to
the port side of the quarter-deck, and planted it close to the bulwarks.
The second lieutenant was the officer of the deck, and was pacing the
planks on the starboard side, while the lookouts in the foretop and on
the top-gallant forecastle were attending closely to their duty,
doubtless with a vision of more prize money floating through their