"See, sir," said the cockswain, pointing towards the eastern horizon; "it is just rising into the streak of light to seaward of us-now it settles in the trough-ah! here you have it again !"

"By heavens!" cried Barnstable, "'tis a man-of-war's stroke it pulls; I saw its oar-blades as they fell! and, listen to the sound! neither your fisherman nor your smuggler pulls such a regular oar."

Tom had bowed his head nearly to the water, in the act of listening, and now, raising himself, he spoke with confidence

"That is the Tiger; I know the stroke of her crew as well as I do of my own. Mr. Merry has made them learn the new-fashioned jerk, as they dip their blades, and they feather with such a roll in their rullocks! I could swear to the stroke."

"Hand me the night-glass," said his commander, impatiently; "I can catch them, as they are lifted into the streak. You are right, by every star in our flag, Tom!-but there is only one man in her stern-sheets. By my good eyes, I believe it is that accursed Pilot, sneaking from the land, and leaving Griffith and Manual to die in English prisons. To shore with you-beach her at once.

The order was no sooner given, than it was obeyed, and in less than two minutes, the impatient Barnstable, Dillon, and the cockswain, were standing together on the sands.

The impression he had received, that his friends were abandoned to their fate by the Pilot, urged the generous young seaman to hasten the departure of his prisoner, as he was fearful every moment might interpose some new obstacle to the success of his plans.

"Mr. Dillon," he said, the instant they were landed, "I exact no new promise-your honour is already plighted”–

"If oaths can make it stronger," interrupted Dillon, "I will take them."

"Oaths cannot-the honour of a gentleman is, at all times, enough. I shall send my cockswain with you to the Abbey, and you will either return with him, in person, within two hours, or give Mr. Griffith and Captain Manual to his guidance. Proceed, sir; you are conditionally free; there is an easy opening by which to ascend the cliffs."

Dillon, once more, thanked his generous captor, and then proceeded to force his way up the rough eminence.

"Follow, and obey his instructions," said Barnstable to his cockswain, aloud.

Tom, long accustomed to implicit obedience, handled his harpoon, and was quietly following in the footsteps of his new leader, when he felt the hand of the lieutenant on his shoulder.

"You saw where the brook emptied over the hillock of sand ?" said Barnstable, in an under

tone.

Tom nodded assent.

"You will find us there, riding without the surf-'twill not do to trust too much to an enemy."

The cockswain made a gesture of great significance with his weapon, that was intended to indicate the danger their prisoner would incur, should he prove false; and, applying the wooden end of the harpoon to the rocks, he ascended the ravine at a rate that soon brought him to the side of his companion.

CHAPTER IV.

"Ay, marry, let me have him to sit under > He's like to be a cold soldier."

Falstaff.

BARNSTABLE lingered on the sands for a few minutes, until the footsteps of Dillon and the cockswain were no longer audible, when he ordered his men to launch their boat once more into the surf. While the seamen pulled leisurely towards the place he had designated, as the point where he would await the return of Tom, the lieutenant first began to entertain serious apprehensions concerning the good faith of his prisoner. Now, that Dillon was beyond his control, his imagination presented, in very vivid colours, se veral little circumstances in the other's conduct, which might readily excuse some doubts of his good faith, and, by the time they had reached the place of rendezvous, and had cast a light grapnel into the sea, his fears had rendered him excessively uncomfortable. lieutenant to his reflections, on this unpleasant Leaving the subject, we shall follow Dillon and his fearless and unsuspecting companion, in their progress towards St. Ruth.

The mists, to which Tom had alluded, in his discussion of the state of the weather with his commander, appeared to be settling nearer to the earth, and assuming, more decidedly, the ap

pearance of a fog, hanging above them, in sluggish volumes, but little agitated by the air. The consequent obscurity added deeply to the gloom of the night, and it would have been difficult for one, less acquainted than Dillon with the surrounding localities, to have found the path which led to the dwelling of Colonel Howard. After some little search, this desirable object was effected, and the civilian led the way, with rapid strides, towards the Abbey.

"Ay, ay!" said Tom, who followed his steps, and equalled his paces, without any apparent effort, "you shore-people have an easy way to find your course and distance, when you get into the track. I was once left by the craft I belonged to, in Boston, to find my way to Plymouth, which is a matter of fifteen leagues, or thereaway; and, so finding nothing was bound up the bay, after lying-by for a week, I concluded to haul aboard my land tacks. I spent the better part of another week in a search for some hooker, on board which I might work my passage across the country, for money was as scarce then with old Tom Coffin as it is now, and is likely to be, unless the fisheries get a good luff soon; but it seems that nothing but your horse-flesh, and horned cattle, and jack-asses, are privileged to do the pulling and hauling in your shore-hookers; and I was forced to pay a week's wages for a birth, besides keeping a banyan on a mouthful of bread and cheese, from the time we hove-up in Boston, 'till we came-to in Plymouth town."

"It was certainly an unreasonable exaction, on the part of the stage-owners, from a man in your situation," said Dillon, in a friendly, soothing tone of voice, that denoted a willingness to pursue the conversation.

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My situation was that of a cabin passenger," returned the cockswain; "for there was but one hand forward, beside the cattle I mentioned-that was he who steered-and an easy birth he had of it; for there his course lay a-tween walls of stone, and fences; and, as for his reckoning, why, they had stuck up bits of stone on-end, with his day's work footed up, ready to his hand, every half league or so. Besides, the land-marks were so plenty, that a man, with half-an-eye, might steer her, and no fear of getting to leeward."

"You must have found yourself, as it were, in a new world," observed Dillon.

"Why, to me, it was pretty much the same as if I had been set afloat in a strange country, though I may be said to be a native of those parts, being born on the coast. I had often heard shore-men say, that there was as much 'arth as water in the world, which I always set down as a rank lie, for I've sailed with a flowing sheet months an-end, without falling in with as much land or rock as would answer a gull to lay its eggs on; but I will own, that a-tween Boston and Plymouth, we were out-of-sight of water for as much as two full watches."

Dillon pursued this interesting subject with great diligence, and, by the time they reached the wall, which enclosed the large paddock that surrounded the Abbey, the cockswain was deeply involved in a discussion of the comparative magnitude of the Atlantic Ocean and the Continent of America.

Avoiding the principal entrance to the building, through the great gates which communicated with the court in front, Dillon followed the windings of the wall until it led them to a wicket, which he knew was seldom closed for the night, until the hour for general rest had arrived. Their