t all events a
boy of education; and from the service I had already rendered them in
giving them warning of the crew's design. I was in hopes that the
captain would let me have my letter back, but to my dismay he again
looked at it and read it. I saw a thunder-cloud gathering on his brow;
his lips quivered with rage; I cannot repeat the terms he applied to me.

"And so, you young anatomy, you dare to call me a tyrant and a brute,"
he shouted out in a hoarse voice; "to write all sorts of lies of me to
your friends at home. You see that yard-arm. Many a fellow has been
run up for a less offence. Look out for yourself. If the crew don't
finish you off before the voyage is over, I'll make you wish you had
never set foot on the deck of the `Emu.'"

"I wish I never had," I exclaimed.

"What! You dare speak to me," roared the captain. "Here, Mr Simmons,
take this mutinous young rascal and give him three dozen. We'll
keel-haul him next, if that doesn't bring him into order."

Here the passengers interfered. Mr McTavish declared that he would not
stand by and let me be unjustly punished.

"If it were not for young Cheveley, where should we be by this time,
Captain Longfleet?" he asked. "You know as well as we do what was
intended. If your mate attempts to touch him, he must take the
consequences."

The captain was silent for some minutes. Perhaps some sense of what was
right overcame his ill-feeling.

"Let him go, Simmons," he said, turning to the mate. "It's lucky for
you, boy, that this letter was not sent," he said, looking at me. He
tore it up and threw the fragments overboard. "Remember that the next
time you write home, I intend to have a look at your letter. You may
let your friends know where you are, but you can't accuse me of carrying
you away from home."

As the captain turned from me, I thought that the best thing I could do
was to go forward. I saw two of the men, who had been within earshot
while the captain was speaking, eyeing me with no friendly glances. I
looked as innocent as I could; but weary though I was, when it was my
watch below I was almost afraid lest I should never awake again in this
world. When I was forward the men treated me as badly as ever, but I
found the conduct of the captain and officers towards me greatly
improved, owing to the influence of the passengers. I had frequently to
go into the cabin to assist the steward, who, though he often gave me a
slight cuff,