e drove his elbow into the ribs of Chips, and winked at Fitz, who
could hardly contain his countenance at the carpenter's peculiar looks,
for the big rough sailor seemed as bashful as a girl, and nodded and
gesticulated at the lads in turn, while the next moment he looked as if
about to bolt, for the skipper suddenly clapped him on the shoulder and
exclaimed as he turned him round--

"You must thank this man, President, not me, for he was my
engineer-in-chief. Weren't you, Chips?"

"Ah, my friend," cried the Spaniard, "some day, when I get my own,
believe me that I will pay you for all that you have done."

"Oh, it's all right, sir. Don't you worry about that. 'Course you see
it warn't much of a job."

He took off his straw hat and wiped the great drops from his sun-browned
brow with the back of his hand.

"You see, sir, it was like this 'ere. The skipper he puts me on the
job, and `Chips,' he says, `make the best of it you can by way of
offence.' `Niver another word, sir,' and off he goes, and here was I
when the young gents come up, all of a wax; warn't I, Mr Poole, sir? I
put it to you, sir. `Look here, sir,' I says, `the skipper's put me on
this 'ere job with my kit of tools left aboard the schooner, and not a
bit of stuff.' Didn't I, sir? Speak out straight, sir. I only asks
for the truth."

"You did, Chips," said Poole solemnly, and setting his teeth as he
spoke; "didn't he, Burnett?"

"Oh yes," replied the middy, "he did say something like that," and then
as he caught Poole's eye he had to turn his back, looking out through
the slit in the window and biting his tongue hard the while, while he
heard the carpenter maunder on to the President something more about not
having a bit of stuff, and every nail to straighten before he could
drive it in again.

"Yes, that's right. Winks," said the skipper, bringing the speech to an
end, and not before it was time, for the carpenter was beginning to
repeat himself again and again. "You did splendidly, and if we had a
few hundred feet of battens and boards, we could hold this place for a
month.--Well, President," he continued, turning his back on his man, who
sighed with relief and whispered to Fitz that that was a good job done,
"and after we've driven them back again?"

"Ah! After! Treachery, fire, powder to blow us up! The fighting of
cowards. But with your help, my brave, as soon as they are cowering
among the trees we must attack in turn."

"