ook the rope, but before he had
given it a pull one occupant of the canoe came scrambling on board with
the other end of the rope in his hand, while the canoe, now lightened of
half its load, glided astern, with the black paddling hard.

"There's going to be a row," whispered Brace merrily to his brother, as
they stood there, feeling as though a great weight had been removed from
their breasts. He was quite right, for before the supposed drowned man
had taken a couple of steps the captain was at him.

"Here, you, sir," he roared, "do you want to have sunstroke? Where's
your hat?"

"I dunno," was the reply.

"Here," shouted the captain, who was in a towering passion, "where's
that Tom Jinks?"

"Here he is, sir; here he is, sir," cried half a dozen voices, and the
men opened out to give him a full view of the trembling sailor.

"Now, sir, what call had you to tell us that you had brought Mr Lynton
aboard last night?"

"So we did--didn't we, mate?"

This to another of the sailors, who was staring hard at the new-comer.

"Oh, yes, we fetched him off in the little boat," said the man
addressed.

"No, you didn't," said the second mate sourly.

"Well!" exclaimed Tom Jinks, who began to see now that it was real flesh
and blood before him. "Why, we did, and you was--well, I ain't going to
say what. Wasn't he, mate?"

"Oh, yes, that's a true word," said the other man.

"You don't know what you're talking about," said the second mate
indignantly; "and if either of you says that I was on I'll knock you
down."

"No, you won't, James Lynton," said the captain warmly. "You don't
handle either of my men. Look here, did you come aboard last night in
the boat?"

"No, of course not."

"Then who did?" cried the captain. "The men must have brought
somebody."

"Oh, yes," said Tom Jinks, "we brought him aboard."

"I say you didn't," cried Lynton. "I went to sleep, I s'pose, after
dinner, and I didn't wake up again till this morning."

"Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself, James Lynton," said the
captain indignantly.

"I _ham_," cried the second mate boldly: "right down, and no mistake."

"A warning to you not to go out eating and drinking more than is good
for you," said the captain.

"I didn't," replied the mate. "I took just what was good for me, and no
more."

"It seems like it," said the captain sarcastically. "Instead of coming
aboard in your own ship's boat according to the terms of your le