'Why, to make signals with,' said he. 'Odds me that I should have
forgot it! How is one's consort to know what is going forward when the
flagship carries no artillery? Had the lass been kind I should have
fired one gun, that you might know it.'

'Why,' I answered, 'if you come not out I shall judge that all is well.
If things go amiss I shall see you soon.'

'Aye--or stay! I'll hoist a white jack at the port-hole. A white jack
means that she hath hauled down her colours. Nombre de Dios, when I was
a powder-boy in the old ship _Lion_, the day that we engaged the
_Spiritus Sanctus_ of two tier o' guns--the first time that ever I heard
the screech of ball--my heart never thumped as it does now. What say
ye if we run back with a fair wind and broach that anker of Nants?'

'Nay, stand to it, man,' said I; for by this time, we had come to the
ivy-clad cottage behind which was the village smithy. 'What, Solomon!
an English seaman never feared a foe, either with petticoats or without
them.'

'No, curse me if he did!' quoth Solomon, squaring his shoulders, 'never
a one, Don, Devil, or Dutchman; so here goes for her!' So saying he made
his way into the cottage, leaving me standing by the garden wicket, half
amused and half annoyed at this interruption to my musings.

As it proved, the sailor had no very great difficulty with his suit, and
soon managed to capture his prize, to use his own language. I heard
from the garden the growling of his gruff voice, and a good deal of
shrill laughter ending in a small squeak, which meant, I suppose, that