aded, and barefooted form of little Cal Moody, the well-loved
comrade whose tragic fate the Rangers were discussing in subdued tones.

The lad's face and hands were covered with scratches from which blood
was oozing; but he could still smile, and still had voice enough to say,
"I'm awfully sorry, Will, but the mermaid startled me so that--"

Just here the Rangers, who had been paralyzed into momentary silence,
regained their senses, and realizing that he whom they had mourned as
dead was restored to them alive and well, broke into such a storm of
cheers, shouts, laughter, and questions, that young Jabe, with terrified
face, came rushing in from the galley filled with the belief that they
had gone sure enough crazy.

Regardless of appearances they leaped from their bunks and crowded
forward, eager to shake Cal by the hand, or even to feel of him, and so
assure themselves that he was real.

"Where did you find him?"

"Where has he been all this time?"

"How did he get so scratched up?"

"Oh, Cal, it's so good to see you!"

"Now we won't have to go home after all, will we?"

These were some of the questions and exclamations poured forth by the
excited boys. But before Cal could reply to one of them, Captain Crotty,
striving to conceal his joy beneath a stern exterior, roared out, "Let
him alone, ye lubbers, and get back to your bunks afore I murder half a
dozen of ye!" Then as the boys meekly obeyed this savage order, he began
with clumsy but gentle fingers to strip little Cal of his wet clothing.
Not until the lad was rubbed into a glow, and snugly tucked away between
warm blankets, was he allowed to explain what had happened to him. Then
he said:

"I was looking for mermaids, because the Captain told us to, you know,
and, besides, I wanted awfully to see a real truly one. When it came,
though, it jumped out of the water so kinder sudden that I tumbled right
overboard almost into its arms, and didn't get a good look at it,
either. I must have gone down a thousand feet before I got off my rubber
boots and began to come up. First I struck something hard and
scratchy--"

"Barnacles on the vessel's bottom," explained the skipper.

"Yes, and we never cleaned them off, as you told us to," said Cracker
Bob Jones, remorsefully.

"Then," continued Cal, "I caught hold of something, and my head came out
of water, and as soon as I could I began to holler. I guess I hollered
more'n an hour before Captain Crotty came, a