ou jest give
that there letter to the cap'en when you sees him, and good luck to you,
my lad!"

I waved my hand in reply as he sculled away, all alone now in the
wherry, towards the flagship to try and pick up some stray passenger for
Gosport or Hardway; and the next instant I had gained the top of the
accommodation ladder, and was standing within the entry-port leading on
to the middle deck.

"Hullo!" cried a bluejacket stationed at the gangway, who, I noticed,
had a red stripe on his arm, and subsequently learnt was one of the
ship's corporals, who serve as police always aboard a man-of-war. "What
do you want here, boy?"

"I've come to join the ship, sir," said I to him respectfully, seeing
that he was some one in authority, and having been taught by father to
be deferential to everybody, especially those who were my superiors,
respect to rank and station being the very essence of the discipline of
the service. "Got a letter for the cap'en."

"Give it here, my lad," said the man more civilly to me, calling to a
marine close by. "I'll have the letter passed off to him at once; and
you'd best step into the office there and wait till the master-at-arms
can see you."

So saying, he pointed to a large open sort of cabin, with glass sides to
it, immediately adjoining the entry-port, where I found a couple of boys
of about my own age, and who had evidently come aboard on a similar
errand.

One of these was a red-haired, short, thickset fellow, with an ugly,
bulldog sort of a face, whose beetle-brows met over a pair of ferrety
eyes, giving him a most forbidding appearance, and I did not like the
look of him at all.

The other was a poor ragged chap, without any shoes to his feet; but he
had a jaunty devil-me-care air, and such a pleasant smile and merry
twinkle about the corners of his mouth, that I could not help taking a
fancy to him, at once hoping that we might be chums.

However, I did not have much time for reflection anent either of them;
for hardly had we taken stock of each other, when a stoutish middle-aged
man, dressed in a tight-fitting monkey-jacket, ornamented with the
letters `NP' on the collar, and a row of bright crown-and-anchor buttons
down the front, besides having a gold badge bearing the same device over
the mohair band of his blue peaked cap, appeared at the doorway of the
cabin, or `police office,' as the place is properly called, where we
three boys were waiting anxiously to learn our fa