ing about your cheeks."

"Who's fiddling, as you call it, about one's cheeks?"

"You were, and it's of no use; the miserable little bits of down are
gone, and there's nothing for it but to wait till the hairs begin to
grow again."

"Er-r-r!" growled Roberts angrily; and he raised his fingers to the
singed spots involuntarily, and then snatched them down again, enraged
by the smile which was beginning to pucker up his companion's face.
"There you go again. You're worse than the skipper."

"Then don't make me laugh, for it hurts horribly."

"I'll make you laugh on the other side of your face directly."

"No don't--pray don't," sighed Murray; "for the skin there's stiffer,
and I'm sure it will crack."

"You're cracked already."

"I think we must all have been, to get ourselves in such a mess, old
fellow. But it was very brave, I suppose, and I don't believe any one
but English sailors would have done what we did."

"Pooh! Any fools could have started those fires."

"Perhaps so. But what's the matter now?" For Roberts had raised his
face from the water he was beginning to use, with an angry hiss.

"Try and bathe your face, and you'll soon know."

"Feel as if the skin was coming off? Well, we can't help it. Must get
rid of the black. The skin will grow again. But I'm thinking of one's
uniform. My jacket's like so much tinder."

A wash, a change, and a visit to the doctor ended with the sufferers
being in comparative comfort, and the two lads stood and looked at each
other.

"Hasn't improved our appearance, Dick," said Murray.

"No; but you must get the barber to touch you up. One side of your
curly wig is singed right off, and the other's fairly long."

"I don't care," cried Murray carelessly. "I'm not going to bother about
anything. Let's go on deck and see what they're about."

Roberts was quite willing, and the first man they encountered was the
able-seaman Titely.

"Why, hallo!" cried Murray. "I expected you'd be in hospital."

"Me, sir! What for?"

"Your wound."

"That warn't a wound, sir; only a snick. The doctor put a couple o'
stitches in it, and then he made a sorter star with strips o' stick-jack
plaister. My belt got the worst of it, and jest look at my hair, sir.
Sam Mason scissored off one side; the fire did the other. Looks nice
and cool, don't it?"

The man took off his new straw hat and held his head first on one side
and then the other for inspection.

"Why, yo