d by landing a left hook on the point of the jaw that
knocked the mate down and out.

As Drew fell back from the fray, which had lasted only seconds, so
swift was the pace, Tyke seized him.

"You've done enough, boy! You've done enough, Allen!" he exclaimed.
"Leave life in the scoundrel so we can get the truth out of him."

CHAPTER XVIII

A SEA COURT

"Mr. Rogers, take the deck!" commanded Captain Hamilton sharply. "You
bullies, get forward with you!" he added to the curious men of the
watch. "Don't any of you lose sight of the fact that if it were a
seaman instead of a passenger who attacked Mr. Ditty, he'd be in the
chain-locker now.

"Drew, you and Tyke come below with me. When you've washed your face,
Mr. Ditty, I want to see you there too. Mr. Rogers!"

"Aye, aye, sir!" responded the second officer, smartly.

"Pass the word forward. Has anybody seen Mr. Parmalee or does any of
them know personally what's happened to him? No second-hand tales,
mind you."

"Aye, aye, sir."

With all his rage and confusion of mind, Drew realized that easy-going,
peace-loving Captain Hamilton had suddenly become another and entirely
different being.

Even Ruth descried no softness in her father's countenance now. She
noted that his eye sparkled dangerously. He waved her before him, and
she fled down the companionway steps ahead of Drew and Grimshaw.

"Now, what's all this about?" the master of the _Bertha Hamilton_
demanded, facing Drew across the cabin table.

"Oh, Father!" gasped Ruth. "That--that--Mr. Ditty says Mr. Parmalee is
murdered and that Allen did it!"

"That's neither here nor there," said the captain sternly. "I don't
believe that any more than you do. But what is this between Ditty and
Mr. Drew? They went at each other like two bulldogs that have nursed a
grudge for a year.

"Now, I want to know what it means, Drew. I heard--Ruth told me--of
the little run-in you had with Ditty the day you first met my daughter
on the Jones Lane pier," pursued Captain Hamilton. "Ruth was carrying
a letter to Captain Peters for me. The _Normandy_ is bound for Hong
Kong, where I'd just come from, and Peters and I have mutual friends
out there. I forgot something I wanted Ruth to tell Captain Peters,
and I asked Ditty, who had shore leave, to waylay her and give her my
message. She'd never seen Ditty, and he startled her. He isn't a
beauty, I admit. But now, what happened after that between you t