e to sleep. I ought to have
stopped on deck."

"No yer oughtn't, sir. Your orders was to take your watch below, and
that was enough for you. Dooty is dooty, sir, be it never so dootiful,
as the proverb says."

"But if I had been on deck I might have heard them coming, Tom."

"And got a rap o' the head like the pore fellows did, sir."

"Well, perhaps so, Tom. I wonder why they didn't strike me as they did
you."

"'Cause you're a boy, sir, though you are a young gentleman, and a
orficer. Fine thing to be a boy, sir. I was one once upon a time.
Wish I was a boy at home now, instead o' having a head like this here."

"I'm thinking of what the captain will say," muttered Mark,
despondently, as he ignored the man's remark.

"Say, sir? Why, what such a British officer as Cap'n Maitland's sure to
say, sir, as he won't rest till he's blown that there schooner right out
of the water."

"And those poor blacks," sighed Mark.

"Ah, it's hard lines for them poor chaps, and the women and bairns too,
even if they are niggers. Oh, if I'd only got that there skipper by the
scruff of his neck and the waistband of his breeches! Sharks might have
him for all I should care. In he'd go. Hookey Walker, how my head do
ache all round!"

"I'm very sorry, Tom Fillot."

"Which I knows you are, sir; and it ain't the first trouble as we two's
been in together, so cheer up, sir. Daylight'll come some time, and
then we'll heave to and repair damages."

Just then there was a low groan from forward.

"That's one of our blacky-toppers, sir. 'Tarn't a English groan. You
feel; you'll know him by his woolly head, and nose. If he's got a nose
hooked one way, it's Soup. If it's hooked t'other way--cocks up--it's
Taters."

"The hair is curly," said Mark, who was investigating.

"P'raps it's Dick Bannock, sir. There, I said it warn't an English
groan."

By this time some of the men were recovering from the stunning effect of
the blows they had all received, and there were sounds of rustling and
scuffles.

"Steady there, mate," growled one man. "What yer doing on?"

"Well, get off o' me, then," said another.

"Here, hi! What are you doing in my bunk? Hullo! Ahoy there! where
are we now?"

"Steady there, and don't shout, my lads."

"All right, sir," growled a voice. "I was a bit confoosed like! Oh, my
head!"

"Ay, mate," said Tom Fillot, "and it's oh, my, all our heads. Beg
pardon, sir, for the liberty, but if