“And, if the lugger can be had, sir, you intend to let Captain Rule go?” he asked, with an air of interest.

“Aye, we may do that; though it will depend on the admiral.  Can you tell us where you left her, and where she probably now is?”

“Captain Rule has said the first already, sir.  He told the truth about that before the court.  But, as to telling where the lugger is now, I’ll defy any man to do it!  Why, sir, I’ve turned in at eight bells, and left her, say ten or fifteen leagues dead to leeward of an island or a lighthouse, perhaps; and on turning out at eight bells in the morning found her just as far to windward of the same object.  She’s as oncalculating a craft as I ever put foot aboard of.”

“Indeed!” said Cuffe, ironically; “I do not wonder that her captain’s in a scrape.”

“Scrape, sir!  The Folly is nothing but a scrape.  I’ve tried my hand at keeping her reck’nin’.”

“You!”

“Yes, sir, I; Ithuel Bolt, that’s my name at hum’ or abroad, and I’ve tried to keep the Folly’s reck’nin’, with all the advantage of thermometer, and lead-lines, and logarithms, and such necessaries, you know, Captain Cuffe; and I never yet could place her within a hundred miles of the spot where she was actually seen to be.”

“I am not at all surprised to hear this, Bolt; but what I want at present is to know what you think may be the precise position of the lugger, without the aid of the thermometer and of logarithms; I’ve a notion you would make out better by letting such things alone.”

“Well, who knows but I might, sir!  My idee of the Folly, just now, sir, is that she is somewhere off Capri, under short canvas, waiting for Captain Rule and I to join her, and keeping a sharp lookout after the inimies’ cruisers.”

Now, this was not only precisely the position of the lugger at that very moment, but it was what Ithuel actually believed to be her position.  Still nothing was further from this man’s intention than to betray his former messmates.  He was so very cunning as to have detected how little Cuffe was disposed to believe him; and he told the truth as the most certain means of averting mischief from the lugger.  Nor did his ruse fail of its object.  His whole manner had so much deceit and low cunning about it, that neither Cuffe nor Griffin believed a word he said; and after a little more pumping, the fellow was dismissed in disgust, with a sharp intimation that it would be singularly for his interest to look out how he discharged his general duties in the ship.

“This will never do, Griffin,” exclaimed the captain, vexed and disappointed.  “Should anything occur to Clinch, or should the admiral happen to be off with the king, on one of his shooting excursions, we shall be in a most serious dilemma.  Would to God we had not left the anchorage at Capri! Then might communicate with the flag with some certainty.  I shall never forgive myself if anything fatal actually take place!”