ken,
but that they thought that it was me.

"What have you got to say to this, Weatherhelm?" asked the captain.
"You are accused by the mouths of two witnesses."

"The accusation is false, sir," I answered calmly. "I was not long ago
at my bag, and I observed neither tobacco nor sugar in it. If you will
send for it, you will find that I speak the truth."

"Very well. Mr Marvel, take a couple of hands with you, and bring up
Weatherhelm's bag," said the captain, addressing the mate of the lower
deck.

I felt very little anxiety during the time the officer was absent, for I
was sure that nothing would be found among my things. He soon returned,
bringing the bag. It was placed before the captain.

"Open it," said he. It was opened on deck in sight of all the officers
and ship's company. What was my horror and dismay, to see drawn forth,
wrapped up in a shirt, a large lump of tobacco and a paper containing
several pounds of sugar! "Now what have you got to say?" asked the
captain, turning to me.

"That I have not the slightest notion how those things came into my
bag," was my prompt answer.

"That is the sort of reply people always give when they are found out,"
said the captain. "It will not serve your turn, I fear."

"I cannot help it, sir," I replied, with a feeling of desperation.
"Appearances are certainly against me, sir; I know not by whom those
things were put into my bag. I did not put them in, and I did not know
that they were there."

"You said that another man was a witness of this affair," said the
captain, turning to Ley. "Who is he?"

Ley began to hum and haw and look uncomfortable. "I'd rather not say,
sir," whined out Ley, "if it is not necessary."

"But it is necessary," thundered out the captain, evidently annoyed at
the man's coolness and canting hypocrisy. "Who is he? or you get the
four dozen awarded you."

I had watched all along the countenance of Iffley. I felt sure that a
plot had been formed against me, and that he was its framer and
instigator. I saw that he began to grow uneasy at this stage of the
proceedings.

"Who is this other man?" repeated the captain.

Ley saw that he must speak out, or that he would still get the
punishment he was so anxious to escape. "There he is; Charles Iffley is
the man, sir, who, besides those two, saw Weatherhelm go to his bag and
put the stolen things into it."

"How is this, Iffley? If you saw a man committing a robbery, it wa