m on board at this moment!" Sir John pointing a shaking
forefinger again at the pressed men.

Captain Suckling stared in the direction where the finger pointed.
"You don't mean to tell me--" he began weakly, addressing the first
lieutenant.

"Mr. Fraser brought them aboard, sir," said the first lieutenant.

"And we'll have the law of you for it," promised the man in the pearl
buttons from amidships, but in a weakening voice.

Captain Suckling was what they call an officer and a gentleman. He drew
himself up at once.

"In my absence my officers appear to have made a small mistake. But I
hope your Excellency may not be disappointed after all. I have never set
eyes on either of these men before, but if that naked man be the Dustman I
will put up a hundred pounds upon him, here and now; or on the other if
that runs counter to your Excellency's fancy--"

"Jem Clark's my man," said Sir John. "I'll match your stake, sir."

"--And liberty for all if they show a decent fight, and a boat to set them
ashore," went on Captain Suckling. "Is that a fair offer, my men?"

The man in the pearl buttons raised his head to answer for the two
pugilists, who by this time were totally incapable of answering for
themselves. He showed pluck, too; for his face shone with the colour of
pale marble.

"A hundred pounds! Oh, go to blazes with your hundred pounds! When I
tell you the Prince Regent himself had five hundred on it. . . . Oh! prop
'em up, somebody! and let the fools see what they've done to poor Jem,
that I'd a-trained to a hair. And the money of half the fancy depending
on his condition. . . ."

"Prop 'em up, some of you!" echoed Captain Suckling. "Eh? God bless my
soul--"

He paused, staring from the yellow faces of the pugilists to the battered
and contused features of his own seamen.

"God bless my soul!" repeated Captain Suckling. "Mr. Fraser!"

"Sir!" The second lieutenant stepped forward.

"You mean to tell me that--that these two men--inflicted--er--_all this?_"

"They did, sir. If I might explain the unfortunate mistake--"

"You describe it accurately, sir. I could say to you, as Sir Isaac Newton
said to his dog Diamond, 'Oh, Mr. Fraser, Mr. Fraser, you little know what
you have done!'"

"Indeed, sir, I fear we acted hastily. The fact is we found the two new
midshipmen, Rodd and Hartnoll, in something of a scrape with these people.
. . ." The second lieutenant told how he had found me batte