The Pirate of the Mediterranean | Page 4

tell you."
"Not if I can help it," said Duff. "At least, till I am a lieutenant.
However, I felt rather queer about the region of the brisket the other
night, when I was dancing with that pretty little Maltese girl, with the
black eyes, and cherry lips, though we neither of us could understand a
word the other said, and I didn't know what was to come of it.
Fortunately, next morning, the sensation had gone off again, and I got
out of the scrape. But the fact is, since I grew up (the rogue was
scarcely fifteen), I have been so little on shore, that I have had no time
to lose my heart."
Jack Raby, who was a year older, and therefore considered himself a
man at all events, burst into a loud fit of laughter, in which his
companion joined him, at the absurdity of their conversation; of which,
although they had spoken in earnest, they were both somewhat
conscious. "But I say, old fellow, without any more humbug about love
and such like bosh, just look at the dear old craft! how beautifully she
sits on the water-- what a graceful sheer she has--and how well her
sixteen guns look run out, like dogs from their kennels, all ready to bite.
You should see her under weigh though, and how beautiful she looks
with her canvas spread! You'd know her for a man-of-war twenty miles
off by the cut of her royals. See, what square yards she's got! and how
well her masts stand. How light she looks aloft--and yet everything that
is required-- not a block too large--and yet everything works as easy as
possible. On deck, too, you'll find there's no jim-crack nonsense about

her-- everything is for service, and intended to last; and yet, where
there is any brass or varnished wood, it's kept as bright and clean as can
be. There isn't a ship on the station can come up to us in reefing or
furling; and, let them say what they like in other ships, there isn't a
happier berth, or a better set of fellows to be found, on board any of
them--take my word for it, Duff."
"Well, from all you say, I haven't a doubt but that I shall like the little
Ione very much," observed the other. "And, at all events, I wouldn't
mind a worse ship, for the sake of being with you. But, I say, who is the
young lady your skipper--I may now, though, call him our skipper--has
fallen in love with?"
"A Miss Garden. She is very young, and very fair, and very bright and
lively. I'm not surprised at any one's admiring her! it's much more
wonderful that everybody doesn't fall in love with her over head and
ears: for my part, though I've only seen her two or three times, I'm
ready to fight and die for her, too, if it were necessary."
"Oh, of course! that we should all be ready to do, as in duty bound, for
our skipper's wife, and much more for the lady of his love," observed
Duff; "but I want to know who she is?"
"I was going to tell you. She has no father nor mother; and her only
living relation, that I know of, is an old colonel Gauntlett, on whose
protection she is entirely thrown. He is rather a grumpy old chap, they
say--but she has no help for it; and he takes her about wherever he goes.
He has got some money--but he hates the navy, and swears she shall
never marry a sailor, or if she does he'll cut her off with a farthing. He
came out here some months ago, and has never let any one with a blue
jacket come inside his door; but, somehow or other, Captain Fleetwood
got introduced to her, and as he was in mufti, the old chap didn't know
he was in the navy, and told him he should be happy to make his
acquaintance. He did not find out his mistake for some time; and when
he did--my eyes, what a rage he was in! He did not mind it so much,
though, afterwards, as he is going away in a few days, and thought the
captain and his niece were not likely to meet again; but the skipper, you
see, is not the man to let the grass grow under his feet in making love,

more than in anything else, and in the mean time he had managed to
come it pretty strong with Miss Garden. How it will end I can't say--I
only know that our captain is the last man in the world to yield up a
lady if he loves her, and believes she loves him--he'd as soon think