ip as mate. Bein' a
shipwrecked seaman, you see--"

"Shipwrecked!" exclaimed the boy, with much interest expressed in his
sharp countenance.

"Ay, lad, shipwrecked; an' not the first time neither, but I was keen to
get home, havin' bin kep' a prisoner for an awful long spell by
pirates--"

"Pints!" interrupted the boy again, as he gazed in admiration at his
stalwart friend; "but," he added, "I don't believe you. It's all barn.
There ain't no pints now; an' you think you've got hold of a green un."

"Tommy!" said the sailor in a remonstrative tone, "did I ever deceive
you?"

"Never," replied the boy fervently; "leastwise not since we 'come
acquaint 'arf an hour back."

"Look here," said Sam Blake, baring his brawny left arm to the elbow and
displaying sundry deep scars which once must have been painful wounds.
"An' look at this," he added, opening his shirt-front and exposing a
mighty chest that was seamed with similar scars in all directions.
"That's what the pirates did to me an' my mates--torturin' of us afore
killin' us."

"Oh, I say!" exclaimed the urchin, in a tone in which sympathy was
mingled with admiration; "tell us all about it, Sam."

"Not now, my lad; business first--pleasure arterwards."

"I prefers pleasure first an' business arter, Sam. 'Owever, 'ave it yer
own way."

"Well, you see," continued the sailor, turning down his, "w'en I went to
sea _that_ time, I left a wife an' a babby behind me; but soon arter I
got out to China I got a letter tellin' me that my Susan was dead, and
that the babby had bin took charge of by a old nurse in the family where
Susan had been a housemaid. You may be sure my heart was well-nigh
broke by the news, but I comforted myself wi' the thought o' gittin'
home again an' takin' care o' the dear babby--a gal, it was, called
Susan arter its mother. It was at that time I was took by the pirates
in the Malay Seas--now fifteen long years gone by."

"W'at! an' you ain't bin 'ome or seed yer babby for fifteen years?"
exclaimed Tommy Splint.

"Not for fifteen long year," replied his friend. "You see, Tommy, the
pirates made a slave o' me, an' took me up country into the interior of
one o' their biggest islands, where I hadn't a chance of escapin'. But
I did manage to escape at last, through God's blessin', an' got to
Hong-Kong in a small coaster; found a ship--the _Seacow_-about startin'
for England short-handed, an' got a berth on board of her. On the
voyage t