But how am I to know him?"
"Merry will give you the password, and tell you where to look for him. I
would land myself, but my orders forbid it. If you meet with
difficulties, show three oar-blades in a row, and I will pull in to your
assistance. Three oars on end and a pistol will bring the fire of my
muskets, and the signal repeated from the barge will draw a shot from
the ship."
"I thank you, I thank you," said Barnstable, carelessly; "I believe I
can fight my own battles against all the enemies we are likely to fall
in with on this coast. But the old man is surely mad, I would----"
"You would obey his orders if he were here, and you will now please to
obey mine," said Griffith, in a tone that the friendly expression of his
eye contradicted. "Pull in, and keep a lookout for a small man in a drab
pea-jacket; Merry will give you the word; if he answer it, bring him off
to the barge."
The young men now nodded familiarly and kindly to each other, and the
boy who was called Mr. Merry having changed his place from the barge to
the whale-boat, Barnstable threw himself into his seat, and making a
signal with his hand, his men again bent to their oars. The light vessel
shot away from her companion, and dashed in boldly towards the rocks;
after skirting the shore for some distance in quest of a favorable
place, she was suddenly turned, and dashing over the broken waves, was
run upon a spot where a landing could be effected in safety.
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