e and wrapped round the occupant, so as to prevent
him from tumbling out, which Larrikins declared, almost with tears in
his eyes, he should deeply regret were such a catastrophe to occur.

"Lor'," he asseverated, "I'd never forgive myself--strike me silly if I
would!"

"Faith an' sure, is it ai'ther expectin' me now for to schlape in that
thare outlandish consarn yez are?" exclaimed Mick, to whom a hammock was
an entire novelty. "It's jokin', faith, ye are entirely, sure!"

However, after, like `vaulting ambition,' overleaping himself when
trying to jump into his unaccustomed bed-place, falling, equally
unceremoniously, `on t'other side,' Mick succeeded in ensconcing himself
very comfortably in his hammock.

Now came my turn, my friend Larrikins being even more obsequious in his
aid to me than to Mick.

The result amply justified his solicitude, for, although I managed to
jump in all right, and even to go to sleep presently soundly enough,
wearied out with all the excitement of the day, I was in the midst of a
terrible dream, in which I thought I was at sea in the _Martin_ brig, in
a fearful tempest, with the waters overwhelming us, and the vessel on
the point of foundering, when I was awakened by a crash that seemed to
resound through the ship, and then I'm sure I saw more stars than were
ever seen by mortal in the bright blue firmament of heaven!

I had been `cut down,' as the nautical phrase goes.

CHAPTER FIVE.

BOXING THE COMPASS.

Sudden as had been my downfall, I was sufficiently awake, after the
first momentary giddiness caused by the sharp crack with which my head
came against the deck had passed away, to have a shrewd idea as to who
had brought about my sad calamity; the giggling and whispering, that
went on around, in the semi-darkness, telling me, had I needed any such
assurance, that my fall was due to no accident.

"Hullo, my joker!" I sang out, recognising the voice of Larrikins as I
fumbled about amongst the blankets and loose hammock cloth, feeling very
much as if I were tightly tied up in a sack, part of the lanyard having
taken a round turn round my neck. "I say, you first-class boy, there!
You with the mug on you like a vegetable marrow! Wait till to-morrow
morning and I'll serve you out for this--see if I don't!"

"Lor', yer doesn't mean fur to say as how ye've gone a downer?" cried my
tormentor, in a tone of great commiseration, lending a hand to extricate
me from the folds of