r!"

It was Two Bells in the first dog-watch before the _Ruby_ closed with us
sufficiently to speak with us; when she reported that she had parted
with the other ships of the squadron even before she had lost sight of
us at the commencement of the gale, not seeing anything of them since.

Her commander also informed the commodore that they had lost two men
overboard while reefing topsails in a squall, the sea running so high
that it was impossible to lower a boat to save them.

We, in our turn, told of poor `Ugly's' heroic end: and, as it was
approaching sunset, his body was sewn up in his hammock, with a shot
fastened to the feet, and committed to the deep.

All hands were present while the chaplain read the funeral service on
the quarter-deck: and, as the grating on which the poor fellow's remains
rested, covered for the moment with the Union Jack, was canted through
the port and its lifeless burden went below with a splash, to its last
resting-place until the sea shall give up its dead, the waning sun
dipped below the horizon.

We then squared yards and bore away straight for Madeira, with the
_Ruby_ keeping company on our lee beam; the wind having sobered down now
to a good ten-knot breeze, and the weather all that one could wish,
getting warmer with every hour of south latitude that we made.

Everybody was jolly that evening as we bowled along before the spanking
breeze, fresh sail being set every watch, until the corvette was
presently clothed in canvas from truck to keelson, the commodore wishing
to take every advantage of the fair wind we had; but, though all the
rest, sailor-like, were laughing and joking on the mess-deck forwards, I
could not so soon forget the poor chap who had gone, his noble self-
sacrifice being ever in my mind.

It was strange that reserved, unforgiving, and yet not unforgetful
temperament of his!

I saw now, when too late, that he had not been quite oblivious of my
having saved him that time on board the _Saint Vincent_ when he so
nearly tumbled from aloft. He had not been ungrateful, as Mick and I
thought him, evidently.

On the contrary, the obligation he believed himself to be under to me
had so weighed upon him that he was too proud to speak until he had
cleared it off, so, he apparently fancied, to be able to treat with me
on level terms.

Mick Donovan had not been on deck when the tragic occurrence happened;
but he was almost as much impressed as myself when I told him