This is the first time we have left port, that he has not
conversed freely with me on the nature of the cruise; but not a syllable
has been exchanged between us on the subject, since we sailed from
Brest."
"Ah! that is your Jersey bashfulness," said Barnstable; "wait till I
come alongside him, with my eastern curiosity, and I pledge myself to
get it out of him in an hour."
"'Twill be diamond cut diamond, I doubt," said Griffith, laughing; "you
will find him as acute at evasion, as you can possibly be at a cross-
examination."
"At any rate, he gives me a chance to-day; you know, I suppose, that he
sent for me to attend a consultation of his officers on important
matters."
"I did not," returned Griffith, fixing his eyes intently on the speaker;
"what has he to offer?"
"Nay, that you must ask your pilot; for while talking to me, the old man
would turn and look at the stranger, every minute, as if watching for
signals how to steer."
"There is a mystery about that man, and our connection with him, that I
cannot fathom," said Griffith. "But I hear the voice of Manual calling
for me; we are wanted in the cabin. Remember, you do not leave the ship
without seeing me again."
"No, no, my dear fellow; from the public we must retire to another
private consultation."
The young men arose, and Griffith, throwing off the roundabout in which
he had appeared on deck, drew on a coat of more formal appearance, and
taking a sword carelessly in his hand, they proceeded together along the
passage already described, to the gun-deck, where they entered, with the
proper ceremonials, into the principal cabin of the frigate.
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