ontinued her solitary course towards England.

The Frenchmen had hitherto behaved in a perfectly orderly, quiet manner,
and obeyed cheerfully the orders issued to them. No change, indeed, was
exhibited towards their English captors; but they soon began to quarrel
among themselves, and were constantly fighting and disputing. If they
did not actually proceed to blows, they appeared every instant as if
about to do so. Their conduct was reported to Mr Nott.

"No great harm in that," he remarked. "If they are quarrelling among
themselves, they are less likely to combine to play us any tricks."

Not many hours had passed before, while he was below, one of the
Frenchmen was left at the helm, and True Blue, who was forward, saw
another come up on deck, and, with a capstan-bar in his hand, make a
blow, so it seemed, at the helmsman's head. He missed it, however, and
the bar, descending with full force on the binnacle, smashed it and the
compasses within it to pieces. Billy remarked the men. There was a
great deal of jabbering, vociferation, and action, but neither of them
struck or hurt the other.

As he watched them an idea occurred to him. "I don't think those
fellows did that by chance," he said to himself. "I will keep an eye on
them."

The noise brought Mr Nott and Paul Pringle on deck.

"A pretty mess you have made, Messieurs," observed the midshipman, who
spoke a sufficient amount of bad French to make himself perfectly
understood by them, and this was one of the reasons why he had been
selected to command the brig. "If I was to give you four dozen each, or
put you in irons, or stop your grog, you'd only get what you deserve.
Now, go and find another compass and put the binnacle to rights. You
Frenchmen are handy at that sort of thing."

The men slunk off as if very much ashamed of themselves, and Paul
Pringle took the helm. True Blue, however, watched them, and he was
certain that there was a laugh in their eyes, giving evidence that they
were well content with what they had done. When they went below also,
they seemed to be on perfectly good terms with each other.

On search being made, no compass whatever was to be found.

"I thought that I had observed, when I first came on board, a spare
compass and boat compass," observed Mr Nott.

But the Frenchmen, on being interrogated, all declared that they were
not aware that there were any others, and said that if there were, they
were private property