"So I thought, and therefore I bought her," remarked the old gentleman. "It was my original intention to have made her a tender to the _Shark_-- in which capacity she would no doubt have proved, as you say, exceedingly useful; and I may further tell you that, subject to Captain Bentinck's approval, I intended to have put you in command of her.  But certain news which has reached me this morning has altered all my plans concerning her, at all events for the present, and instead of making her a tender to the _Shark_ I now propose to send her across to the West Indies with dispatches of the utmost importance.  You will therefore be so good as to proceed on board forthwith and take the command, give all her stores a thorough overhaul, and report to me what deficiencies, if any, require to be made good in order to fit her for the voyage across the Atlantic.  I have issued instructions for your former crew to be turned over to her from the depot ship, and it will be as well, perhaps, for you to take over half a dozen extra hands from the late prize crew of the brig.  I should like to be able to give you Mr Freeman as master, but I can't spare him; so you will have to be your own navigator.  By the way, what sort of a navigator is Keene?"