there to say one word to Jane previous to his leaving the ship.

On opening the steerage-door, however, his eyes wandered in vain round the cabin-Jane was not there; and, at the same moment, the black steward came up to him, and said, "Massa Captain Jessamy, order no men-of-war gemman to come to after-cabin. All kept for rich Nabob Saib, to make lub to pretty English gal."

In the first impulse of passion, Fitzjohn thought of taking Jessamy in his arms and pitching him into the river, through the quarter gallery, but a moment's consideration made him reflect that any other plan of proceeding would on the whole, perhaps, be quite as politic. Finally, therefore, he determined to hasten on board the commodore, and return in time to join the steerage party.

Having arrived on board the Rumbly, he was sent for into the cabin, when the commudore put into his hands the following note, which he had himself carried aboard, with other papers.

"Michael Jessamy returns his best thanks to Commodore Topham for the assistance he has lent the Tigris, and will thank him not to allow Mr. Fitzjohn to return on board his ship, for reasons he will explain when he has the honour of paying his respects to him at Calcutta." "What good have you been at?" said Topham.

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Good, sir?" replied Fitzjohn,

upon my honour, sir, I am not aware."

"Ay, ay, that's always the way with you midshipmen. To hear your own stories, never were purer souls in human bodies, but we shall hear more of this by-and-bye. Meanwhile

just be good enough to stay quietly on board here, and when Mr. Bell returns with the men, he will bring your traps."

Every feeling of anger that could enter a man's breast, rushed into that of Fitzjohn on hearing this. But when Topham's mind was once decided, he well knew the impossibility of rebelling; he therefore left the cabin, internally vowing the deepest vengeance against Jessamy.

CHAPTER XIV.

"Come rove with me,

Our Arab tents are fair and free,

And of the choice, what heart can doubt,
Of thrones with love, or tents without?"

MOORE.

On the following morning, the Tigris moved up the river on the flowing tide, so that when Fitzjohn, who had kept the middle watch, came on deck at six bells, in hopes of finding an excuse to get on board and see Jane Wilson once more, the Tigris was no longer in sight.

In the course of the following day, Jim Bell and all the men who had been lent to navigate the Indiaman, returned on board, Jim having settled, perfectly to his own satisfaction, his

account with the cadet, by simply taking the would-be-bully by the nose, an hour before he left the Tigris, and laying smartly over his shoulders a good rattan. The cadet was loud in his threats of the law; but Jim Bell, knowing that the exposure must be all on the cadet's side, snapped his fingers at this declaration. A short time proved him to be right in his surmise the overseer's descendant pocketed this personal insult, as quietly as it was afterwards proved he had done one or two before.

Jim Bell, having now got this matter off his hands, was asked by Fitzjohn to assist him in running off with Jane Wilson.

"O, as to the matter of that, bo'!" said Jim, "I'll lend ye a fist with all my heart; but as ye ha'n't got the legs of a grasshopper, where the devil are ye going to run to?"

This piece of plain common sense fairly posed our hero, so the friends finally determined to go ashore and leave the nature of their operations to the necessities of the moment.

On asking leave, however, the commodore could not possibly grant him anything of the

sort, till he had heard Captain Jessamy's explanation.

“Well, well, Mr. Jessamy, your life won't be long in the land," thought Fitz. But then he had forgotten to take the sea into consideration; for on the next morning, from some unexpected orders, with which it was not thought absolutely necessary that the midshipmen should be made acquainted, the commodore got ready for sea, and ere another twenty-four hours had elapsed, the Rumbly was fairly in blue water.

Fitzjohn's distress was certainly of the deepest kind, but remedy there was none; so, after refusing his grog for two days, he managed to sketch a rough likeness of his adored one, and pasting this in the front of his quarter bill, he drank-" Sweethearts and wives on Saturday night;" and discovered on Sunday morning, in the words of Sir Henry Halford, that his symptoms were much ameliorated."

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They now learnt that the Rumbly was on her way back to her old station of the Red Sea; and soon after her arrival, Gentleman Jack's attention was most fully occupied by his