agree with that of Mr Macdougall?" asked Captain Billings
again.

"No, Captain Billings," I answered, this time gravely enough. "I found
that our dead reckoning was nearly thirty leagues out, some set of
current having carried us considerably to the westward; but when I told
this to Mr Macdougall, he called me a fool."

"Why did you not come and report the matter to me?"

"Well, sir, I didn't have time to," I said. "When Mr Macdougall spoke
to me in that way, I suppose I gave him a cheeky retort, for he
threatened to knock me down."

"And then?" asked the skipper, when I paused here, not wishing to tell
of my being floored.

"Why, I dared him to touch me," I continued, "and he did knock me down."

"Did he? I heard nothing of this before! I thought that you had
attacked Mr Macdougall first--indeed, he told me so himself!" Captain
Billings said, with much surprise, eyeing the first mate suspiciously.

At this point, an unexpected witness stepped forth in my defence, in the
person of Haxell, the taciturn carpenter. This individual seldom spoke
to any one unless previously addressed; so his voluntary testimony on my
behalf was all the more striking and effective, especially as it was
given in the very nick of time.

"Aye, but the lad didn't," now sang out Haxell, who had come up on the
poop without any one previously noticing him. "I saw Mr Macdougall
knock him down twice afore ever he raised his hand ag'in' him."

"The deuce he did!" exclaimed the skipper, indignantly; and then turning
on the first mate, he gave him another "dressing down" before all the
men, such as I never heard given to any one before. It, really, almost
made me feel sorry for him!

"You lying thing!" he cried to Mr Macdougall in withering accents, the
scorn of which was more than I could express in words. "I can't call
you a man, and you aren't a sailor, by Jove, for sailors don't behave
like that to poor friendless orphan boys! You have told me a heap of
falsehoods about this whole occurrence from first to last, and I despise
you from the bottom of my soul for the way in which you have acted
throughout. I'm only sorry we're at sea, for you shouldn't stop an hour
longer in my ship if I could help it!"

"But, Cap'en," interposed Mr Macdougall, feebly, trying to ward off the
storm of the skipper's wrath, "the ill favourt loon provokit me, and was
mair than inseelent."

"Phaugh, man!" exclaimed Captain Billings, with intense disg