Chapter 7 - Page 2

day a'ter to-morrow?"

"If my mates come over from the main. They wrote me yesterday that they
had got the hands, and were then on the look-out for something to get
across in. I've come out here to be ready for them, and to pick 'em up,
that they needn't go all the way up to the Harbour."

"That's a good traverse, and will save a long pull. Perhaps they are in
_that_ boat."

At this allusion to a boat, Roswell Gardiner sprang into his main rigging,
and saw, sure enough, that a boat was pulling directly towards the
schooner, coming from the main, and distant only a short half mile. A
glass was handed to him, and he was soon heard announcing cheerfully to
his men, that "Mr. Hazard and the second officer were in the boat, with
two seamen," and that he supposed they should _now_ have their complement.
All this was overheard by the skipper of the sloop, who caught each
syllable with the most eager attention.

"You'll soon be travelling south, I'm thinking, Captain Gar'ner?" called
out this worthy, again, in a sort of felicitating way--"Them's your chaps,
and they'll set you up."

"I hope so, with all my heart, for there is nothing more tiresome than
waiting when one is all ready to trip. My owner is getting to be
impatient too, and wants to see some skins in return for his dollars."

"Ay, ay, them's your chaps, and you'll be off the day a'ter to-morrow, at
the latest. Well, a good time to you, Captain Gar'ner, and a plenty of
skinning. It's a long road to travel, especially when a craft has to go as
far south as your's is bound!"

"How do you know, friend, whither I am bound? You have not asked me for my
sealing ground, nor is it usual, in our business, to be hawking it up and
down the country."

"All that is true enough, but I've a notion, notwithstanding. Now, as
you'll be off so soon, and as I shall not see you again, for some time at
least, I will give you a piece of advice. If you fall _in_ with a consort,
don't fall _out_ with her, and make a distant v'y'ge a cruise for an
enemy, but come to tarms, and work in company: lay for lay; and make fair
weather of what can't be helped."

The men on board the sloop laughed at this speech, while those on board
the schooner wondered. To Roswell Gardiner and his people the allusions
were an enigma, and the former muttered something about the stranger's
being a dunce, as he descended from the rigging, and gave some orders to
prepare to receive the boat.

"The chap belongs to the Hole," rejoined the master of the schooner, "and
all them Vineyard fellows fancy themselves better blue-jackets than the
rest of mankind: I