ood a mile to the southward--we had rather
indeed drifted to the northward. Meantime, the captain hearing from the
mate how the men were grumbling, called all hands aft.

"Lads, I want ye to listen to me," he said. "Some of ye fancy that we
are having these calms and baffling winds on one account, and some on
another, but this I know, that He who rules the seas does not allow any
other beings to interfere with His plans. Ye have heard, maybe,
however, of the prophet Jonah. Once upon a time, Jonah, when ordered by
God to go to a certain place and perform a certain duty, disobeyed his
Master, and trying to escape from Him took passage on board a ship,
fancying that he could get out of God's sight. Did he succeed? No!
God had His eye on Jonah, and caused a hurricane which well-nigh sent
the ship to the bottom. Not till Jonah was hove overboard did the
tempest cease. Now, lads, just understand there are some aboard this
brig who are disobeying Him and offending Him just as much as Jonah did,
and it's not for me to say that He does not allow these calms, so
unusual in this latitude, to prevail in consequence. That's all I've
got to say, lads, but ye'll just think over it; and now go forward."

Whether or not the men did think over it, or exactly understood what the
old man meant, I cannot say, but the next morning the carpenter came aft
to the captain and said that he had had a dream which made him remember
that the evening before Andrews's sugar was found to have been stolen,
Ben Grimes had borrowed an axe from him, on examining which afterwards
he discovered that a small piece had been broken off on one side, and
that Grimes acknowledged he had done it by striking a nail in a piece of
wood he was chopping up. On hearing this the captain again summoned all
hands aft, and ordered Andrews to bring his sugar cask. There in the
head was found a piece of iron which exactly fitted the notch in the axe
which the carpenter produced.

"Now, lads, say who stole Andrews's sugar and concealed it in Pulley's
chest?" asked the skipper.

"Grimes! Grimes! No doubt about it!" shouted all the men, with the
exception of the individual mentioned and one other.

"You are right, lads, and Pulley is innocent," said the skipper.

"As the babe unborn," answered the men, and they all, except Grimes and
his chum, following my example, gave Jim a hearty shake of the hand.

I thought that he would have blubbered outright with pleasur