the north, and the captain sat down in the

which it don't, we might hope to lie within half a point of our course. Say we lie within a point of it. That'll just about weather Fakarava. Yes, sir, that's what we've got to do, if we tack for it. Brings us through this slush of little islands in the cleanest place: see?' And he showed where his ruler intersected the wide-lying

was already close aboard, and stood black and strange against the golden splendour of the

e wheel to peer in at the cabin clock, announced in a shrill cry 'Fo

avis to Herrick. 'By the time I've done, it'll be dark,

e lamp, and on the lee side of a bottle of champagne, sat Hui

after-'old, if you want to know,'

of breaking into cargo showing incongruously forth on board that

t you? I'm to go on deck and steer while you two sit and guzzle, and I'm to go by nickname, and got to call you "sir" and "mister." Well, you loo

ve fifty dollars this had ne

see,' returned Huish. 'Try

out another struggle. The ca

's no denying it's the genuine stuff and cheap at the

and he was gay. 'Ay, ay, sir,' said

tain. 'Blamed if I thought I

champagne. It was no less impossible to have assisted at the scene between Huish and the captain, and not to perceive, with sudden bluntness, the gulf where he had fallen. He was a t

, 'you look sick, old ma

eye. 'It is too late to hesitate,' he thought; his hand took the mug instinctively; he drank, with u

s, even this is worth while. Wine, food, dry clothes - why, they're worth dying, wor

p,' said t

. Think of that calaboose! Suppose we were sent suddenly back.' He shuddered

ck's shoulders heaved, so that the table was shaken. 'Take some more of this. He

d showing his dry eyes. 'It's worse than crying. It

' said Davis kindly. 'I told you you were all bro

week and I'd have murdered someone for a dollar! God! and

, my son. Take your pea soup. Food

wine, and a piece of pickled pork and fried banana completed what the

was so much run

a rock all day: now you've had a little l

eady enough now, but I'm a q

y could do that, let alone a college graduate like you. There ain't nothing TO sailoring, when you come to look it i

e was read off the log by the binna

Man, and you stand by the mainsheet. Boom tackle, Mr Hay, p

r,' respond

forward?' a

clear

ils.' A sudden blow sent Huish flat along the deck, and the captain was in his place. 'Pick yourself up and keep the wheel hard over!' he roared. 'You wooden fo

is with an evil countenance. 'Do

you have been, if that boom had swung out and you bundled in the clack? No, SIR, we'll have no more of you at the mainsheet. Seaport towns are full of mains

is.' He turned his back elaborately on the captain, and entered the house, wher

e captain. 'How is she

no'the,' said Davis. 'It's

nds think of it

k. They ain't paid t

g, was there not? between

replied the captain, shaking his head. 'But s

cradled him, he was oppressed besides by the first generous meal after so long a time of f

aggered aft, where the c

ttle puffy; when you get a heavy puff, steal al

e house, paused and h

forward?' said he. 'Bully for you,

. A sharp report from the cabin startled him; a third bottle had been opened; and Herrick remembered the Sea

h our pockets

, trip, we will tr

th Kate, and Tom wi

l back from S

Herrick smiled at the wheel, his anxieties a while forgotten. Song followed song; another cork exploded; there were voices raised, as though the pair in the

a ballo

a ba

g the li

d about

mrades drinking away their reason upon stolen wine, quarrelling and hiccupping and waking up, while the doors of the prison yawned for them in the near future. 'Shall I have sold my honour for nothing?' he thought; and a heat of rage and resolution glowed in his bos

h our pockets

, trip, we will tr

stood entranced, reviewing the past. He had been always true to his love, but not always sedulous to recall her. In the growing calamity of his life, she had swum more distant, like the moon in mist. The letter of farewell, the dishonourable ho

ll'- he was suddenly recalled by th

said he. He would not look hims

tey,' repeate

eplied; and he gave up the wheel, repeati

n; here was the old incompetence; the slate must be filled up by guess. 'Never again!' he vowed to himself in silent fury, 'never again. It shall be no fault of mine if t

ushed faces and uneven steps, the former laden with bottles, the latter with two tin mugs. Herrick silently passed them by. They hailed him in thick voices, he made no answer, they cursed him for a churl, he paid no heed although his belly quivered with disgust and rage. He closed-to t

ept himself reasonably well in hand till he had taken the sun and yawned and blotted through his calculations; but from the moment he rolled up the chart, his hours were passed in slavish self-indulgence or in hoggish slumber. Every other branch of his duty was neglected, except maintaining a stern discipline about the dinner table. Again and again Herrick would hear the cook called aft, and see him running with fresh tins, or carrying away again a meal that had been totally condemned. And the more the captain became sunk in drunkenness, the more delicate his palate showed itself. Once, in the forenoon, he had a bo'sun's chair rigged over the rai

koning?' he asked. 'We get t

cted Herrick. 'And you told me yoursel

flies in the chron

reckoning, which is a part of my duty; I do not know what to allow for current

and while he was still partly sober. 'Here it is: look for yourself; anything from west to west no'the-west, and anyways from f

rrick, with a dark flush, 'and I have the honour to

I guess it's no business of mine to go and stick my head over the ship's rump? I guess it's yours. And I'll tell you what it is, my fine fel

rs, threw them on the fl

omin' swot, ain't

I don't understand when he comes the heavy swell. Won't sit down with us, won't he? won't say a civil word? I

Huish, who was always the more sob

t enough. Let's open another bottle,' said the captain; and that day, perhaps because he was excited

And if the sight killed Herrick's hunger, the isolation weighed so heavily on the clerk's s

approached, and Huish leaned co

aid, 'you and me don't see

a thing he could support with difficulty, having no resources of his own. The idea of a private talk with Herrick, at this stage of their relations, held out particular inducemen

one.-"'Ere," says I, "'old on, easy on the lush," I says. "'Errick was right, and you know it. Give 'im a chanst," I says.-"Uish," sezee, "don't you gimme no more o

rrick wa

asked Huish sharply. 'Yo

m that binnacle

d story of exile, suffering, and injustice among cruel whites. The cook, when he found Herrick messed alone, produced for him unexpected and sometimes unpalatable dainties, of which he forced himself to eat. And one day, when he was forward, he was surprised to feel a caressing hand run down his shoulder, and to hear the voice of Sally Day crooning in his ear: 'You gootch man!' He turned, and, choking down a sob, shook hands with the negrito. They were kindly, cheery, childish souls. Upon the Sunday each brought forth his separate Bible - for they were all men of alien speech even to each other, and Sally Day communicated with his mates in English only, each read or made believe to read his chapter, Uncle Ned with spectacles on his nose; and they would all join together in the singing of missionary hymns. It

You sleep. Evely man hae he do all li

ial words of gratitude; and walked to the side of the

followed him and beg

lied. 'I couldn't sleep. I'm kno

My name Taveeta, all-e-same Taveeta King of Islael. Wat for he ca

h, the sum of what he now communicated. The ship had scarce cleared the Golden Gates before the captain and mate had entered on a career of drunkenness, which was scarcely interrupted by their malady

nd, and went in; and Wiseman a

what they took to be an invitation) entered under the roof of a house in which was a considerable concourse of people sitting silent. They stooped below the eaves, flushed and laughing; within a minute they came forth again with changed faces and silent tongues; and as the press severed to make way for them, Taveeta was able to perceive, in the deep shadow of the house, the sick man raising from his mat a head already defeatured by disease. The two tragic triflers fled without hesitation for their boat, screaming on Taveeta to make haste; they came aboard with all speed of oars, raised a

ised when they made

ay "dam! what thi

Herrick. 'I don't believe

is one mo' betta,' he added, pointing to the house wher

ed it with the scene in which himself was acting, and considered the doom that seemed to brood upon the schooner, a horror that was almost superstitious fell upon him. And yet the strange thing was, he did not falter. He who had proved his incapacity in so many fields, being now falsely placed amid duties which he did not understand, without help, and it might be said without countenance, had hitherto surpassed expectation; and even the shameful misconduct an

d between 134 and 135 degrees West, it fell a dead calm with rather a heavy sea. The captain refused to take in sail, the helm was lashed, no watch was set, and the Farallone rolled and banged for three days, according to observation, in almost the same place. The fourth morning, a little before day, a breeze sprang up and

ed his half-eaten breakfast; and came on deck again, to find the main and the jib topsails set, and both watches and the cook turned out to hand the staysail. The

ly be dismasted. With that their enterprise was at an end, and they themselves bound prisoners to the very evidence of their crime. The greatness of the

ty. His back was to the squall, and he was at first intent upon the setting of the sail. When that was done, and the great trapezium of canvas had begun to draw and to trail t

the steersman, and saw him clinging to the spokes with a face of a sickly blue. He saw the crew were running to their stations without orders. And it seemed as if something broke in his brain; and th

in a voice that totter

, bounding in the boat an

lose the Farallone. You're going to drown here the same way as you drowned others, and be d

hite and foolish. 'My God!' he cried, looking

, then!' reitera

eet. 'Down staysail!' he trumpeted. The hands were thrilling for the order, and the great sail came with a r

he gloried in the wild noises of the wind and the choking onslaught of the rain; he gloried to die so, and now, amid this coil of the elements. And meanwhile, in the waist up to his knees in water - so low. the schooner lay - the captain was hacking at the foresheet with a pocket knife. It was a question of seconds, for

opped into light airs, the sun beamed forth again upon the tattered schooner; and the captain, having secured the foresail boom and set a couple of hands to the pump, walked aft, sober, a little pale, and with the sodden end of a cigar sti

s. 'We've lost the two tops'ls and the stays'l,' he gabbled. 'Good business, we

rick, in a voice strangely quiet, that y

his hand. 'I know what you're thinki

it, though,' re

vis. 'You've said what I would take from no man

, as you please; I will make no resistance - only, I decline in any way to help or to obey you; and I suggest you should put

ck?' cried the captain, det

Herrick, with the same hateful smile. 'I've

me; there ain't nothing wrong but the drink - it's the old stor

e to see no more of

You know what you said about

wish me to say it you

ou leave to put bullet through me; I beg you to do it! You're the only man aboard whose carcase is worth losing; do you think I don't know that? do you think I ever went back

I gave my honour for? and that you'll attend to your duties, and stand watch and watch, and bear your proper share of the ship's work, instead of leaving it all

the captain. 'You wouldn't have me say I was ashamed of myself? Trus

nce,' said Herrick.

iends again, the same as what I am; and go tender on the raws; I'll see as you don't repent it. We've been mighty near death this day - don'

aps only talking against time in terror of what Herrick might say next. But Herrick had now spat his venom; his was a kindly nature, and, content with h

dren? I want to tell you why it hit me so hard; I kind of think you'll feel bad about it too. It's about my little

d me a dozen times she was alive! Clear

ortland, Maine. "Adar, only daughter of Captain John Davis and Mariar his wife, aged five." I had a doll for her on board

h an extraordinary softness but a complete composure; and H

s a kind of a child's game of mine. I never could act up to the plain-cut truth, you see; so I pretend. And I warn you square; as soon as we're through with this

ulous hand upon the

m all broken up the way it is? Come along, then; come along, old man; yo

ere was Huish on his knees pri

ptain. 'No more of that. No

me, eh? Bloomin' nearly lost another ship, I fancy.' He took out a bo

me speak?'

ud enough,' said Huish. 'The

ve. 'Let him free now,' he said. '

en,' said the capta

ed, mug in hand, expecting the usual explosion. It did not follow. He eased the cork with his thumb; still

uish. "Ere's

the mug; it was colourless and

his?' he said

passed round; each sipped, each smelt of it; each stared at the bottle in its glory of gold paper as Crusoe may have stared at the footprint; and their minds were swift to fix upon a

e two were brought out, broken open, and tested. Still with the same result: the conte

!' said

pping his brow with a back-handed sweep; and the th

below, another stationed at a purchase; and Davis

let the men know?'

s. 'It's beyond that. We'

; from each bottle, as the captain smashed it wit

?' cried Davis to the

water. Deeper yet, and they came upon a layer where there was scarcely so much as the intention to deceive; where the case

in the hold, Uncle, and get the broken crockery overboard. Come with m