us before we left the
cutter."

"Well, then, you had better go to the cook-house and draw rations. No
doubt the cook has a list of you fellows' names."

The boys took the advice and soon procured a cooked ration of meat and
potatoes. The cook told them where they would find plates.

"One of the mess has to wash them up," he said, "and stow them away in the
racks provided for them."

"Johnson," the eldest boy said to the smallest of the party, "you need not
wash up to-day; that is the duty of the last comer."

"I suppose it is the duty of each one of the mess by turn," Will said
quietly; "we learnt that much as we came down the coast."

"You will have to learn more than that, young fellow," the bully, who was
seventeen, blustered. "You will have to learn that I am senior of the
mess, and will have to do as I tell you. I have made one voyage already,
and all the rest of you are greenhorns."

"It seems to me from the manner in which you speak, that it is not a
question of seniority but simply of bounce and bullying, and I hope that
the other boys will no more give in to that sort of thing than Stevens or
myself. I have yet to learn that one boy is in any way superior to the
others, and in the course of the next hour I shall ascertain whether this
is so."

"Perhaps, after the meal is over, you will go down to the lower deck and
allow me to give you a lesson."

"As I told you," Will answered quietly, "my friend and I are one. I don't
suppose that single-handed I could fight a great hulking fellow like you,
but my friend and I are quite willing to do so together. So now if there
is any talk of fighting, you know what to expect."

The bully eyed the two boys curiously, but, like most of the type, he was
at heart a coward, and felt considerable doubt whether these two boys
would not prove too much for him. He therefore muttered sullenly that he
would choose his own time.

"All right! choose by all means, and whenever you like to fix a time we
shall be perfectly ready to accommodate you."

"Who on earth are you with your long words? Are you a gentleman in
disguise?"

"Never mind who I am," Will said. "I have learnt enough, at any rate, to
know a bully and a coward when I meet him."

The lad was too furious to answer, but finished his dinner in silence, his
anger being all the more acute from the fact that he saw that some of the
other boys were tittering and nudging each other. But he resolved that,
though it