“I am aware,” replied the veteran, “that those who have been shipwrecked, and in a French prison, are not likely to be very flush of cash.  It is, however, a point on which I must consult my messmates.  Excuse me one moment, and I will bring you an answer:  I have no doubt but that it will be satisfactorily arranged; but there is nothing like settling these points at once.  Mr Webster, see that the lighter shoves off the moment that she is clear,” continued the first lieutenant to one of the midshipmen as he descended the quarter-deck ladder, leaving Newton to walk the quarter-deck.

In a few minutes the first lieutenant reappeared, with one or two officers of the gun-room mess, who greeted him most cordially.

“I have seen all that are requisite,” said he to Newton.  “Two I have not spoken to, the master and the purser; they are both poor men with families.  If, therefore, you will not be too proud to accept it, I am requested to offer you a free passage from the other officers of the mess, as we feel convinced that your company will more than repay us.  The proportion of the expense of your passage to the other two will be but one or two pounds; a trifle, indeed, but still of consequence to them; and that is the only expense which you will incur.  If you can afford to pay that, any time after your arrival in England, we shall be most happy to receive you, and make the passage as comfortable and pleasant as circumstances will permit.”

To this most liberal proposition Newton most gladly acceded.  The officers who had come on deck with the first lieutenant invited Newton below, where he was introduced to the remainder of the mess, who were most of them fine young men, as happy and careless as if youth was to last for ever.  Having pledged each other in a glass of grog, Newton returned on shore.  The next morning he made his arrangements, paid his bill at the hotel, and before twelve o’clock was again on board of the frigate, which lay with the Blue Peter hoisted, and her fore-topsail loose, waiting for her captain, who was still detained on shore while the admiral and governor made up their despatches.

When Newton had applied to the captain of the frigate for a passage home, he could hardly believe it possible that the person to whom he was introduced could be entrusted with the command of so fine a vessel.  He was a slight-made, fair complexioned lad, of nineteen or twenty years at the most, without an incipient mark of manhood on his chin.  He appeared lively, active, and good-natured; but what were the other qualifications he possessed, to discover such a mark of confidence, were to Newton an enigma requiring solution.