ned as a witness. For fear of committing me, he was only
puzzled what to say.

"Speak the truth, and nothing but it," said I boldly. The captain cast
a look of approbation on me. Toby frankly confessed that, not seeing
Mr Spellman, he had run against him, when he had been seized by the
ear, and that I, coming up, had taken his part. Toby was dismissed.

"Now, young gentlemen, you are both in the wrong," said the captain.
"You, Mr Spellman, should not have struck the boy for his heedlessness,
and you, Mr Merry, should not have taken the law into your own hands.
You will both of you go to the mast-head, and remain there till Mr
Lukyn calls you down; Mr Merry to the foremast, Mr Spellman to the
mainmast."

We thought that we had got off very easily; and we should, had not the
first-lieutenant gone below and forgotten all about us. Hour after hour
passed by: we had had no dinner: I was almost starved, and could
scarcely have held on longer, when my eye fell on a sail to the
southward. We were in the chops of the channel, with the wind from the
northward. "Sail, O!" I shouted in a shrill tone. Fortunately Mr
Lukyn was on deck, and when I had told him the direction in which I had
seen the stranger, he called me down, it having probably occurred to him
that I had been mast-headed rather longer than he intended.

When I got on deck I went up to him, and, touching my hat, said,
"Please, sir, Spellman is still at the mast-head."

"Oh, is he? ah!" he answered, taking a turn.

I guessed from this that he did not think I was much to blame. Still I
was anxious to get poor Miss Susan out of this unpleasant predicament,
for I knew he was almost dead with hunger. I had resolved to go up to
Mr Lukyn to tell him so, when he hailed my late antagonist, and ordered
him on deck.

"You have to thank Mr Merry that you are not up still," observed the
first-lieutenant, walking away.

Meantime the helm had been put up, and sail made in chase of the
stranger. All hands earnestly hoped that she might prove an enemy. A
sharp look-out was kept on her. One thing soon became evident--that we
must have been seen, and that she was not inclined to fly.

"Now, Mr Merry, we'll show you what fighting is," observed Mr Johnson,
the boatswain, as I stood near him on the forecastle. "You'll soon see
round-shot, and langrage, and bullets rattling about us, thick as hail;
and heads, and arms, and legs flying off like shuttle-cocks. A man's