ng with
the most villainous of low London accents.

"What did you say was your name?"

"David, sir; David Jimpny. He won't bite, will he, sir?"

"No. Here, Bruff, leave that alone and come here."

Mark's declaration that the dog would not bite seemed to give the man
very little confidence, and no wonder, for Bruff kept eyeing the
stowaway suspiciously in a way which seemed to indicate that he was
looking out for a fleshy place to seize, but to his disappointment found
none, only good opportunities for a grip at a bone.

Just then Small the boatswain came up from the hold, nodded at Mark, and
gave one of his thumbs a jerk.

"I showed you your berth, my lad, go and turn in."

The man went forward and disappeared below, while the big rough
boatswain gave the captain's son another friendly nod.

"Got to be drilled," he said. "Rough stuff to work up into a sailor.
Rather have you, squire."

"Oh! I should not make a good sailor," said Mark lingering.

"Not if I took you in hand, my lad? Why, I'd make a man of you in no
time. Is the skipper going to hand you over to me?"

"No; I'm only going as far as Plymouth or Penzance for a trip."

"More's the pity, my lad. Think twiced of it, and don't you go wasting
your time ashore when there's such a profession as the sea opening of
its arms to you and a arstin of you to come. Look at your father:
there's a man!"

"Is he a very fine sailor?"

"Is he a fine sailor!" said the boatswain staring. "What a question to
ask! why, there aren't a better one nowhere. Think twiced on it, my
lad, and come all the way."

"I wish I could," said the boy to himself as he went back to the cabin,
to find his father already there; and half an hour later, after a little
joking about trying to sleep on a shelf in a cupboard, Mark clumsily
turned in, far too much excited by the events of the day to go to sleep,
and gradually getting so uneasy in the cramped space in which he had to
lie, that he came to the conclusion that it was of no use to try; and as
he lay thinking that he might as well get up and go and watch the
re-stowing of the cargo, he found himself down low in the darkness,
occupying the long triangular place from which the stowaway had been
dragged.

How hot and stifling it seemed, and yet how little he felt surprised at
being there, even when a strange dread came over him and he struggled to
escape, with the knowledge all the time that the sailors and dock
labourer