port at every step.

"None of that 'ere slobbering and shamming, Bill. Why, damn you, what
d'ye think you're here for, eh? You swab this deck, and in five
minutes, or I'll teach you, and be damned."

Sick as death, Eric slowly obeyed, but did not get through his task
without many blows and curses. He felt very ill; he had no means of
washing or cleaning himself; no brush, or comb or soap, or clean linen;
and even his sleep seemed unrefreshful when the waking brought no change
in his condition. And then the whole life of the ship was odious to
him. His sense of refinement was exquisitely keen, and now to be called
Bill, and kicked and cuffed about by these gross-minded men, and to hear
their rough, coarse, drunken talk, and sometimes endure their still more
intolerable patronage, filled him with deeply-seated loathing. His
whole soul rebelled and revolted from them all, and, seeing his
fastidious pride, not one of them showed him the least glimpse of open
kindness, though he observed that one of them did seem to pity him in
heart.

Things grew worse and worse. The perils which he had to endure at
first, when ordered about the rigging, were what affected him least; he
longed for death, and often contemplated flinging himself into those
cold deep waves which he gazed on daily over the vessel's side. Hope
was the only thing which supported him. He had heard from one of the
crew that the vessel would be back in not more than six weeks, and he
made a deeply-seated resolve to escape the very first day that they
again anchored in an English harbour.

The homeward voyage was even more intolerable, for the cattle on board
greatly increased the amount of necessary menial and disgusting work
which fell to his share, as well as made the atmosphere of the close
little schooner twice as poisonous as before. And to add to his
miseries, his relations with the crew got more and more unfavourable,
and began to reach their climax.

One night the sailor who occupied the hammock next to his heard him
winding up his watch. This he always did in the dark, as secretly and
silently as he could, and never looked at it, except when no one could
observe him; while, during the day, he kept both watch and chain
concealed in his trousers.

Next morning the man made proposals to him to sell the watch, and tried
by every species of threat and promise to extort it from him. But the
watch had been his mother's gift, and he was resolute