n't have come back."

"What!" roared the admiral, in a tone which made Pan shrink into
himself. "And look here, sir," he continued, turning to his nephew,
"who made you first in command with your promises?"

"Don't let him be flogged, father," pleaded Syd. "I'm to blame about
him. I did promise him that if he would come back he should not be
punished."

"Take your boy home, Strake, and bring him here to-morrow morning," said
the captain, sternly. "He is not to be flogged till he has made his
defence."

"Ay, ay, sir!" growled the old boatswain; and pulling an imaginary
forelock, he hauled Pan out of the room, their passage down the path
towards the gardener's cottage being accompanied by a deep growling
noise which gradually died away.

"Well, sir," said the captain, coldly, "you heard what I said."

Syd looked from one to the other appealingly, feeling that as he had
humbly confessed he was in the wrong, he ought to be treated with more
leniency, but his uncle averted his gaze, and his father merely pointed
to the door, through which, faint, weary, and despondent, the boy went
out into the hall, while the two old men seemed to be listening till he
had gone up-stairs.

"A miserable, mean-spirited young scoundrel!" said Captain Belton,
angrily, but his face grew less stern directly, as he saw his brother
throw himself back in his chair, to laugh silently till he was nearly
purple.

"Oh, dear me!" he panted at last, "nearly given me a fit. What a dirty,
miserable object he looked!"

"Disgraceful, Tom!" said the captain. "Now, then, what would you do
with the young dog? Send him off to some school for a couple of years?"

"No," said the admiral, quietly.

"I don't like thrashing the boy."

"Of course not, Harry."

"But I must punish him."

"What for?"

"What for? Disobedience. This mad escapade--"

"Bah!"

"Tom?"

"I said _Bah_! Punish him? Why, look at the boy. Hasn't he punished
himself enough? Why, Harry, we were boys once, and precious far from
perfect, eh? I say, I don't think either of us would have had the
courage to have faced our old dad and confessed like that."

"Humph! perhaps not, Tom."

"No perhaps about it, dear old boy."

"But I must punish him."

"No, you mustn't. I won't have him punished. I like the young dog's
spirit. We said he should go to sea. He said he didn't want to go, and
sooner than do what he didn't like he cut and run, till he found out he
was