"Did you ring for me, sir?" inquired the marine.

"Yes," replied Captain Livingstone. "Is my son come on board yet ?"

"Yes, sir."

"Then why, you scoundrel, was I not called?"

"I can't say, sir; Lieutenant Livingstone had been on board nearly half an hour when I relieved guard. I had no orders to

"Right, right, I left none. How many bells

is it ?"

"Wants about ten minutes to four bells in the middle watch, sir."

My son's watch on deck, isn't it?"

"Yes, sir."

"Tell him to come here."

"Yes, sir."

The marine here shut the cabin-door, ran upon deck, and having delivered his message to the officer of the watch, followed the latter down to the cabin of the father.

"James, at what hour did you come off from the shore?" demanded Captain Livingstone.

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Twenty minutes to twelve, sir."

Why did not you come in and tell me the success of your arrangements? I suppose everything is right?"

"O yes! everything is right, sir; and therefore, as I could not find that you had left orders to be called, I did not like to wake you."

"Oh! And how have you settled it, then?"

"Why, sir, directly he lands from the courtmartial, after being broken and dismissed the service, I learn that we have power to impress him before the mast. The admiral had at first some scruples as to permitting the press-gang to be used, till I stated to him what you told me, and he then exacted a promise that we were not to attempt to take him till he had fairly landed."

“Ah, the old fool! he's always for marring any scheme that isn't as womanish as himself. However, since you've promised, let it be so -and let me once get hold of him before the mast, where a cat-o'-nine tails can reach him, and if I don't cut his liver out, may I be

d-d! I I suppose the prisoner's all safe be

"Ah, very well; good-night, boy, and tomorrow we'll do for that scoundrel at last."

"Good night, sir," replied the son, withdrawing from the cabin; and the worthy captain, having indulged in the amiable feelings displayed by the above dialogue, turned round and addressed himself to sleep.

His mind had been too long deadened by the possession of power, to be able to perceive that the greatest scoundrel in the case was himself; while having purposely carried on the conversation with his son in a low tone, that would not have disturbed his daughter had she been, as he imagined, asleep, he had now little conception that the very vigilance of his malice, which in the dead of night had roused him to plan premeditated revenge, had been the means of putting on his guard the victim he wished to entrap and destroy.

Ramsay knew how fully he was abhorred. In defiance of both father and son, he had

paid his addresses to Angela, who had come out in the ship from England for a passage -he had bearded them both-had braved all their anger and persecution, and successfully, till in a quarrel with the son he had lifted his hand to strike one whom a few months' difference in seniority had made his superior.

Luckily the blow was arrested by the surgeon, who stood by, and loved him; nor did the offence take place upon the quarter-deck. But he knew, the moment the whirlwind of his passion had subsided, that he was a ruined man; the opportunity so long sought was gained, and he prognosticated but too surely the court-martial that was now about to take place; still he had believed that there his persecution must end.

Of an open, noble, and confiding spirit himself, he had not calculated to what extent the dastardly spite of the mean, the base, the cowardly, can go; and when he heard, for he could not avoid hearing, the conversation of Captain Livingstone and his son, he was equally convinced that it could relate only to

him, and was thunderstricken at the brutal and perfidious cruelty that it displayed.

As to the poor girl beside him, it seemed to have deprived her alike of sense and motion. She neither moved nor spoke, and it was only from the wild beating of her heart, and the burning tears that trickled from her face on his, that he could tell she lived.

Anne had not only heard every word that had been uttered, but, in the bright moonlight of the tropics, saw everything that passed around her, and was terrified lest the further stay of the lieutenant should lead to his discovery. With all the persuasion, therefore, in her power, she urged him to depart. Nor, indeed, could he differ from her as to the expediency of his doing so. Gently disengaging Angela's arms, therefore, from around him, he placed the weeping girl on her cot, and whispering consolation that he did not feel, and promising a return that he knew not how to bring about, he imprinted a last kiss upon her lips, and in a state of agitation that made light of all corporeal danger, he re-passed into