We are here alone, and your
Honor will account it no boasting, if I say that a man, well limbed and
active, who stands six feet between plank and earline, is not likely to be
led against his will, like a yawl towing at the stern of a four-and-forty.
I am a seaman, Sir; and though the ocean is my home, I never venture on it
without sufficient footing. Look abroad from this hill, and say whether
there is any craft in view, except the cruiser of the Queen, which would
be likely to suit the taste of a mariner of the long voyage?"
"By which you would have me understand, you are here in quest of service?"
"Nothing less; and though the opinion of a fore-mast Jack may be of little
value, you will not be displeased to hear, that I might look further
without finding a prettier sea-boat, or a swifter, than the one which
sails under your own orders. A seaman of your station, Captain Ludlow, is
not now to learn, that a man speaks differently, while his name is his
own, and after he has given it away to the crown; and therefore I hope my
present freedom will not be long remembered."
"I have met men of your humor before, my friend, and I have not now to
learn, that a thorough man-of-war's man is as impudent on shore, as he is
obedient afloat.--Is that a sail, in the offing, or is it the wing of a
sea-fowl, glittering in the sun?"
"It may be either," observed the audacious mariner, turning his eye
leisurely towards the open ocean, "for we have a wide look-out from this
windy bluff.
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