ly when the
doctor wound up seriously with the words, "But, dear Sir John, I _was_
thirsty."

To have seen this admiral to-night, no one would have believed that he
had that day signed the death-warrant of the ringleader of the mutineers
on board the _Marlborough_. But so it was, and to-morrow he should die.

It was on board the _Marlborough_ that the mutiny had found a hot-bed.
It was on board the _Marlborough_ that Sir John determined this man
should be hanged, hoisted up by the hands of his own messmates, whom his
seditious eloquence had seduced from duty's path.

It was a stern resolve. The captain of the _Marlborough_ had come on
board to beg that the man might be executed in some other ship. His
messmates, he averred, would never hang him, but would break at once out
into open mutiny. This officer was dismissed to his ship with one of the
severest reprimands ever administered to any captain in his majesty's
service.

Down below, in a darksome cabin of the cockpit of the _Victory_, Jack
went to see an old shipmate of his, a boatswain who had been with him
in the _Ocean Pride_. He was wounded, but recovering, and was delighted
to have a visit from one he had known as a mere boy.

And not far from this gloomy cabin was the cell in which the unhappy man
was confined who next morning early should pay the penalty for his
insubordination. Jack just caught one glimpse of his gray unhappy face,
in which his dark eyes gleamed like living coals. That face haunted him
in his dreams throughout the livelong night.

He saw that face again next morning, as the man was being taken to the
ship to be hanged _by his messmates_. The same gray, cadaverous hue, the
same dark and stony stare. "Had he a wife," Jack wondered, "or a sister
that loved and cared for him, or prattling children who would never see
their sailor 'daddy' more?" Oh, the sadness of it!

The whole fleet witnessed that punishment from rigging and decks. Every
precaution was taken to insure its being carried out. Captain Campbell
of the _Blenheim_ superintended. Launches armed with carronades were
ranged near the _Marlborough_, and the orders they had were to open fire
at once upon the rebellious ship if the men refused obedience, or dared
to open a port, and, if need be, to sink her with all hands, in presence
of the fleet.

But see! the trembling wretch stands out upon the cat-head, the awful
rope around his neck. The end is rove through a block in the fore-