As soon as he felt sure that his eyes had not
deceived him, he said, addressing the captain,
'There she is, sir.'
'Where?' exclaimed Rowland, eagerly, snatching his spy-glass from its
place in the cabin gangway.
'She is in plain sight, sir,' answered the lieutenant, about one point
off our weather-quarter.'
'Ah, I see her,' exclaimed the captain after he had looked for a moment
through his spy-glass in the direction intimated.
'Does she show any signal, sir?'
'She does not,' replied Rowland, 'and I am convinced she is a piratical
vessel. Therefore, Mr. Howe, you will see the ship instantly cleared for
action.'
Whilst this last order of the captain was in progress of execution,
Rowland, spy-glass in hand, ascended the mizzen rigging of the ship, and
kept his eyes intently fixed upon the brig, thus soliloquising as he did
so:--
'It is rather a delicate, not to say desperate game, which I have
undertaken to play, though so far I have the vanity to think that I have
acted my part to admiration. By the most consummate art and address I
managed to gain the command of this noble ship, and no one on board, as
far as I can learn, has the least suspicion of the manner in which I
intend to dispose of her.
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