Instead of shoving the bottle to him, however, as if conscious how much disappointed hope had already driven the other to its indiscreet use, he pushed it gently aside, and taking his old messmate's hand with a momentary forgetfulness of the difference in rank, he said in a tone of kindness and confidence that had long been strangers to Clinch's ears: "Jack, my honest fellow, there is good stuff in you yet, if you will only give it fair play.

Make a manly rally, respect yourself for a few months, and something will turn up that will yet give you your Jane, and gladden your old mother's heart." There are periods in the lives of men, when a few kind words, backed by a friendly act or two, might save thousands of human beings from destruction.

Such was the crisis in the fate of Clinch.

He had almost given up hope, though it did occasionally revive in him whenever he got a cheering letter from the constant Jane, who pertinaciously refused to believe anything to his prejudice, and religiously abstained from all reproaches.

But it is necessary to understand the influence of rank on board a man-of-war, fully to comprehend the effect which was now produced on the master's-mate by the captain's language and manner.
Tears streamed out of the eyes of Clinch, and he grasped the hand of his commander almost convulsively.
"What can I do, sir?
Captain Cuffe, what can I do ?" he exclaimed.