eneath his blankets, and, lying down, closed his eyes
as the new-comer stepped on to the floor.

"All asleep?" inquired the latter.

The other man nodded, and Dan, without any further parley, crossed over
to the sleepers and shook them roughly.

"Eh! wha's matter?" inquired the sleepers plaintively.

"Git up," said Dan impressively, "I want to speak to you. Something
important."

With sundry growls the men complied, and, thrusting their legs out
of their bunks, rolled on to the locker, and sat crossly waiting for
information.

"I want to do a pore chap a good turn," said Dan, watching them narrowly
out of his little black eyes, "an' I want you to help me; an' the boy
too. It's never too young to do good to your fellow-creatures, Billy."

"I know it ain't," said Billy, taking this as permission to join the
group; "I helped a drunken man home once when I was only ten years old,
an' when I was only--"

The speaker stopped, not because he had come to the end of his remarks,
but because one of the seamen had passed his arm around his neck and was
choking him.

"Go on," said the man calmly; "I've got him. Spit it out, Dan, and none
of your sermonising."

"Well, it's like this, Joe," said the old man; "here's a pore chap,
a young sojer from the depot here, an' he's cut an' run. He's been in
hiding in a cottage up the road two days, and he wants to git to London,
and git honest work and employment, not shooting, an' stabbing, an'
bayoneting--"

"Stow it," said Joe impatiently.

"He daren't go to the railway station, and he dursen't go outside in his
uniform," continued Dan. "My 'art bled for the pore young feller, an'
I've promised to give 'im a little trip to London with us. The people
he's staying with won't have him no longer. They've only got one bed,
and directly he sees any sojers coming he goes an' gits into it, whether
he's got his boots on or not."

"Have you told the skipper?" inquired Joe sardonically.

"I won't deceive you, Joe, I 'ave not," replied the old man. "He'll have
to stay down here of a daytime, an' only come on deck of a night when
it's our watch. I told 'im what a lot of good-'arted chaps you was, and
how--"

"How much is he going to give you?" inquired Joe impatiently.

"It's only fit and proper he should pay a little for the passage," said
Dan.

"How MUCH?" demanded Joe, banging the little triangular table with his
fist, and thereby causing the man with the antimacassar to drop a