gazed at the stern of the fast-receding smack; Sunwich was
getting dim in the distance and there was no other sail near. He began
to realize that he was in for a long voyage.

"I awoke this morning and found myself in a bunk in vow fo'c's'le," he
said, regarding Hardy steadily. "However I got there is probably best
known to yourself. I hold you responsible for the affair."

"Look here my lad," said Captain Hardy, in patronizing tones, "I don't
know how you got aboard my ship and I don't care. I am willing to
believe that it was not intentional on your part, but either the outcome
of a drunken freak or else a means of escaping from some scrape you have
got into ashore. That being so, I shall take a merciful view of it, and
if you behave yourself and make yourself useful you will not hear
anything more of it. He has something the look of a seafaring man, Mr.
Prowle. See what you can make of him."

"Come along with me, my lad," said the grinning Mr. Prowle, tapping him
on the shoulder.

The captain turned with a snarl, and, clenching his huge, horny fist, let
drive full in the other's face and knocked him off his feet.

"Take that man for'ard," cried Captain Hardy, sharply. "Take him
for'ard."

Half-a-dozen willing men sprang forward. Captain Nugent's views
concerning sailormen were well known in Sunwich, and two of the men
present had served under him. He went forward, the centre of an
attentive and rotating circle, and, sadly out of breath, was bestowed in
the forecastle and urged to listen to reason.

For the remainder of the morning he made no sign. The land was almost
out of sight, and he sat down quietly to consider his course of action
for the next few weeks. Dinner-time found him still engrossed in
thought, and the way in which he received an intimation from a
good-natured seaman that his dinner was getting cold showed that his
spirits were still unquelled.

By the time afternoon came he was faint with hunger, and, having
determined upon his course of action, he sent a fairly polite message to
Captain Hardy and asked for an interview.

The captain, who was resting from his labours in the chart-room, received
him with the same air of cold severity which had so endeared Captain
Nugent himself to his subordinates.

"You have come to explain your extraordinary behaviour of this morning, I
suppose?" he said, curtly.

"I have come to secure a berth aft," said Captain Nugent. "I will pay a
small