The midshipman winked confidentially at the moon, there being no one else
to wink at, and then said gravely:

"I think, Dick, the right thing to do would be to put your right hand on
your heart, and hold your left hand up, with the forefinger pointing to
the ceiling, and to say, 'Madam, I leave you now. When years have rolled
over our heads I will return, and prove to you at once my affection and my
constancy.'"

Dick's eyes opened to their widest, and it was not until his friend went
off in a shout of laughter that he was certain that he was being chaffed;
then, with an exclamation of "Confound you, Harry!" he made a rush at his
comrade, who dodged his attack, and darted off, closely pursued by Dick.
And as they dashed round the cupola and down the stairs their light-
hearted laughter--for Dick soon joined in the laugh against himself--rose
on the evening air; and the tars, smoking their pipes round the bivouac
fires below, smiled as the sound came faintly down to them, and remarked,
"Them there midshipmites are larking, just as if they were up in the
maintop."




CHAPTER XXI.

A SAD PARTING.


Sir Colin Campbell had considered it possible that the enemy would, upon
finding that the Residency was relieved, and the prey, of whose