Chapter 21 - Page 2

carriage of some
gun that was placed beyond the sacred limits of the quarter-deck One form
alone stood erect, vigilant, and evidently maintaining a watchful eye over
the whole This was Wilder, whose turn to keep the deck had again arrived,
in the regular division of the service of the officers.

For two hours, not the slightest communication occurred between the Rover
and his lieutenant. Both rather avoided than sought the intercourse; for
each had his own secret sources of serious meditation At the end of that
period of silence, the former stopped short in his walk, and looked long
and steadily at the still motionless figure on the deck beneath him.

"Mr Wilder," he at length said, "the air is fresher on this poop, and more
free from the impurities of the vessel: Will you ascend?"

The other complied; and, for several minutes they walked silently, and
with even steps, together, as seamen are wont to move in the hours of
deep night.

"We had a troublesome morning, Wilder," the Rover resumed, unconsciously
betraying the subject of his thoughts, and speaking always in a voice so
guarded, that no ears, but his to whom he addressed himself, might embrace
the sound: "Were you ever so near that pretty precipice, a mutiny,
before?"

"The man who is hit is nigher to danger than he who feels the wind of the
ball."

"Ah! you have then been bearded in your ship! Give yourself no uneasiness
on account of the personal animosity which a few of the fellows saw fit to
manifest against yourself. I am acquainted with their most secret
thoughts, as you shall shortly know."

"I confess, that, in your place, I should sleep on a thorny pillow, with
such evidences of the temper of my men before my mind. A few hours of
disorder might deliver the vessel, on any day, into the hands of the
Government, and your own life to"----

"The executioner! And why not yours?" demandeded the Rover, so quickly, as
to give, in a slight degree, an air of distrust to his manner. "But the
eye that has often seen battles seldom winks. Mine has too often, and too
steadily, looked danger in the face to be alarmed at the sight of a King's
pennant. Besides it is not usual for us to be much on this ticklish coast;
the islands, and the Spanish Main, are less dangerous cruising grounds."

"And yet have yon ventured here at a time when success against the enemy
has given the Admiral leisure to employ a powerful force in your pursuit."

"I had a reason for it. It is not always easy to separate the Commander
from the man. If I have temporarily forgotten the obligations of the
former in the wishes of the latter, so far, at