up. I think he slopped the dirty water over
me on purpose."

"Just my idea of it. I'll tell him what I think of it." And striding
after the bearded sailor Captain Ponsberry gave him a lecture not to be
readily forgotten.

"I won't have any of your dirty underhanded work aboard of my ship," he
concluded. "Either you'll behave yourself, or I'll put you in irons."

"In irons!" ejaculated Semmel, scowling viciously.

"That is what I said and that is what I mean. Ever since you came on
board you have been acting in this same dirty fashion and I want it
stopped. Now swab up that deck, and see that you make a first-class job
of it. For two pins I'd make you black Russell's shoes."

"No black nobody's shoes," growled Semmel, but in such a low tone that
Captain Ponsberry could not hear him. He cleaned the deck in his own
ugly, independent manner, muttering imprecations against both Larry and
the captain in the meantime.

As a matter of fact, even though he had denied it to Captain Ponsberry
and others, Ostag Semmel was really a Russian by birth, having been born
and raised in the seaport of Kolaska. He had been drafted into the army,
but not wishing to serve under a military rule which is unusually
severe, he had run away to sea and become a sailor.

Life on the ocean suited Semmel very well and he would have remained
away from Russia had it not been for the fact that a rich uncle had died
leaving him a property valued at two thousand dollars--a small fortune
in the eyes of a man of this Russian's standing. He wished to go back to
claim his inheritance, but feared to do so, for he knew that once on
Russian soil he would be arrested for desertion, and might be sent to a
military prison for a great number of years.

From a friend in Manila he had heard of something which interested him
greatly. This was the news that another deserter from the Russian army
had been pardoned for his offense because he had taken home with him
important news concerning the movements of a certain Japanese warship.

"If I could only do as well," he told himself, over and over again, and
then, when he signed articles for the _Columbia's_ trip, he listened
eagerly to some talk he overheard about the ship's cargo. When he began
to suspect the truth--that the cargo was meant for the Japanese
Government--his eyes glistened cunningly.

"If I can only let Russia know of this!" he reasoned. "All will go well
with me. If I can only let Russia know!"