I will give
him for Griffith, and the crew of the Alacrity for Manual's command and
the Tigers."
"The Tigers!" cried the lad, with emotion; "have they got my Tigers,
too? Would to God that Mr. Griffith had permitted me to land!"
"It was no boy's work they were about, and room was scarcer in their
boat than live lumber. But this Mr. Dillon has accepted my proposition,
and has pledged himself that Griffith shall return within an hour after
he is permitted to enter the Abbey; will he redeem his honor from the
pledge?"
"He may," said Merry, musing a moment; "for I believe he thinks the
presence of Mr. Griffith under the same roof with Miss Howard a thing to
be prevented, if possible; he may be true in this instance, though he
has a hollow look."
"He has bad-looking lighthouses, I will own," said Barnstable; "and yet
he is a gentleman, and promises fair; 'tis unmanly to suspect him in
such a matter, and I will have faith! Now listen, sir. The absence of
older heads must throw great responsibility on your young shoulders;
watch that battery as closely as if you were at the mast-head of your
frigate, on the lookout for an enemy; the instant you see lights moving
in it, cut, and run into the offing; you will find me somewhere under
the cliffs, and you will stand off and on, keeping the abbey in sight,
until you fall in with us."
Merry gave an attentive ear to these and divers other solemn injunctions
that he received from his commander, who, having sent the officer next
to himself in authority in charge of the prize (the third in command
being included in the list of the wounded), was compelled to entrust his
beloved schooner to the vigilance of a lad whose years gave no promise
of the experience and skill that he actually possessed.
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