hipman where he stood; and the boy set his
teeth as the skipper's fierce fiery eyes seemed to look him through and
through.

"Now for it," thought Fitz, as he held his breath. "What will he say?"

He was not long kept in doubt, for the skipper spoke at once, not with
some furious denunciation, not with mocking contempt of the childish
effort of which the lad had been the hero, but in a quiet, easy-going
tone, strangely contrasted with the fierce look in his eyes.

"Oh, there you are, my lad," he said. "Do you see what work these
tropic fevers can make of a strong man? Why, if you had only had me to
deal with you would have had it all your own way. There, come and sit
down, and let's have a palaver."

"I can stand, sir, thank you," said the boy coldly, "and you needn't
exert yourself to talk. I know all that you would say, and I confess at
once that I have failed. But," he added excitedly, "I am not sorry, not
a bit. I felt it my was duty under the circumstances, and I feel now
that I might have succeeded, and that it would have been right."

"Of course you do," said the skipper quietly. "But there, come and sit
down here, all the same. That's right. We can talk more easily now.
One moment; just open that window a little wider. This place is like an
oven, and I want cool air.--Hah! That's better."

He lay with his head thrown back and his eyelids half-closed.

"Well," he said at last, good-humouredly, and with a smile beginning to
play about his rugged face, with the effect of sending a thrill of anger
through the boy's frame, as he flashed out furiously--

"Don't laugh at me, sir! Put me in irons; punish me as much as you
like; but don't jeer at me. I can't bear that."

"Steady, my boy, steady!" said the skipper quietly. "You must cool down
now. Why, Burnett, my lad, you had better furl up all your romantic
sails and let's talk like men. I am not going to put you in irons, I am
not going to punish you. What nonsense! Why, when I was your age and
just as thoughtless, if I had been placed in your position I might
likely enough have tried on just such a trick. It will be a lesson for
you to follow out the old proverb, `Look before you leap.' You can't
see it now, but some day I have no doubt that you will feel that it was
a mad idea, attempted because you didn't know the people among whom you
had been cast, nor thought it out so as to see how impossible it all was
for a boy like you--a lad lik