round the combatants to see fair play. Of this, however, there was little or none, for the master's hot temper had inconsiderately matched him against one who in youth, stature, and activity, was far beyond himself. In three minutes it was quite evident that the master would be beaten to a mummy; and as soon as the foretop-man saw how complete was his mastery, he unclenched his hands, and seizing the master by the arms, just as a good-natured stripling would a child, he held him off at arm's length, saying, "Old gemman, if you know when you've had enough, you'll speak out now."

"D- -n ye," replied Soundings, spluttering, and kicking with his rage at the other's shins, "ye lubberly, rascally, mutinous, lying swab."

"Vast there, old boy, 'vast," said Cresswell, hopping round in a ring. "D'ye take me for a nigger, that you slap out at a fellow's precious shanks in that way. Remember two can play at that. Come now, old fellow, come to your senses, will you?"

"Gif ye will but let me go, I'll beat your brains out, if ye have any," answered the furious master, struggling like a babe in the arms of a giant, and at last, when he found he could do nothing else, applying his teeth to the other's hand.

"Tut, man of mine! ye'll no bring disgrace on the auld country, that ye fight like my grandmother's sow!" exclaimed the corporal, making forward and interposing his iron frame between the topman and his late superior. “Let him go, Cresswell, let him go," said he; “I'll be his surety for more sensible conduct."

On the instant Cresswell released his hold, the master flew on him like a bull-terrier; but the corporal, putting an arm round the latter's waist, coolly lifted him up, and carried him down under the half-deck, leaving him there without a remark, and seemingly with as much indifference as if he had been a log of wood. Not that the master permitted him to encourage any such a belief by his passiveness; for, both with tongue and arms, his peppery but not bad-hearted little countryman belaboured the marine to the utmost extent of his strength during the whole passage.

Under the half-deck the master was given in charge to the sentry, who was to see that he remained there till he recovered his temper. By this time the results of the illjudged fight began to show themselves in the many-tinted marks left upon his features, and the rainbow-like radia

tion encircling his left eye. He also gathered sufficient recollection of mind to become aware of the folly of kicking against the pricks, till such time as he could also set fire to them.

He sat down, therefore, with all the composure in his power to assume, (for little indeed of it was real,) and while consoling himself with passing his bandana over his inflamed and painful features, communed with himself as to how the ship could be regained, and the views of the mutineers defeated. In his own mind, he had not a doubt that Ramsay had instigated and framed this outbreak long before its actual occurrence; though fortunately he had, unknown to the majority of the crew, been turned adrift before he could assist in its progress, and, by taking command of the rebels, profit by its completion.

This the master in his own mind fully resolved that he never should do; though before, as an ill-treated officer, he had fully extended to him all the pity in his nature. No one could more loudly have condemned the atrocious act of forsaking him; but these gentler emotions seemed now to have become so many frozen snakes warmed in his bosom, whenever he contemplated this mutiny as set afloat by his machinations. Without giving his reason an opportunity of ascertaining beyond idle doubt whether this was so or not, he resolved on depriving the mutineers of all chance of recovering the island, or regaining the marooned favourite.

The open log-board stood opposite to the gun on which he had taken his seat. On this he intently fixed his gaze for half an hour, yet not in such a way as to attract the sentry's notice, but rather as one in deep thought and dejection fills the vacant glance with something, he cares not what, while the mind within is busy on matters far distant, Such, however, was not the case with the master-he soon learnt off by heart the courses, winds, and number of knots that the ship had been steering and making, and this done, he took occasion of the sentinel's back being turned to rub out the whole with his fingers. He then shut the log-board, and marched below.

CHAPTER XVII.

In rudest breasts affection lingers long,
And reason sinks beneath a sense of wrong.

As soon as the angry and discomfited master reached the ward-room, he found the officers, as I have before described, arrested, and in their various cabins. With many growls he submitted to stern necessity, and in like manner retired to his own, doing so, however, with the better grace, that he might commit to paper the particulars lately rubbed from the log.

Scarcely had he done this, when the door was suddenly dragged open, and three or four of the ringleaders appeared, demanding what he had done with the ship's reckoning.

"The ship's reckoning!" said the wrathful Scotchman, in admirably feigned surprise. "The de'il be with ye, what should I know of the ship's reckoning? is it not marked on the long-board, you fules?"

"I say, old boy, suppose you keep your slack terms to yourself a little more," replied one of the mutineers. "Remember you're not under the pennant now, and it may be as easy to make you walk the plank as the deck. We know very well that it should have been on the log, but some nimble-fingered thief has been and rubbed it all out, and the sentry says it's you."

"Is there no other lies can be tauld in the ship to suit you as well as that?" confidently replied the master; and then, as if at once to answer and exemplify his own question, he added, "I tell ye I havena set eyes on the board to-day-I don't so much as know whether it's aboard the ship or out of it." Pulling towards him the door of his cabin, he shut and fastened it, leaving the disappointed seamen to indulge in those expressions of anger which formed their only resource.

"Well," said the corporal, as they reached the quarterdeck, "has that obstinate old dunderhead given you up the reckoning?"

"No, the old methody, not he-there's no circumventing

them ere sort of chaps you never catches one swearing, but they lie like old Nick! He declares he hasn't set eyes on the board to-day.”

"If he hasn't his eyes, then, he has his fingers," replied the corporal, who was not to be taken in so easily: "but if he's once said it, he'll stick to it. But I know a trick that'll settle him. I'm sure he's the man that's rubbed out the board; but that's neither there nor here: make a fresh score and begin to keep it again, and if the sentry allows it to be rubbed out a second time, we'll rub him down with three dozen. Now, if we could look into the master's cabin at this moment, no doubt he's working the day's work, or pricking the ship, on the chart. Let him, therefore, see the courses we run, as marked on the board afresh, and if we happen to be getting into danger, he's not a likely man to let the ship go ashore, blowing hard as it is. That will make him speak, if nothing else can; so let's see if the quartermaster can't remember enough of the morning's log to make up for what that old Turk's diminished. Who was the quartermaster of the morning watch?"

"Old Mustapha," replied one of the council then assembled round the drumhead of the capstan,-mentioning one of the oldest and best seamen in the ship, who was thus nicknamed from the fact of his having so capacious a memory as to be able to tell the thousand and one tales of Scheherazade in the Arabian Nights.

66

"Mustapha, Mustapha ?" bawled half a dozen voicespass, the word for Mustapha, the quartermaster of the morning watch." In a few minutes the venerable oriental made his appearance. By aid of his good recollection the seamen ascertained the courses run since leaving the uninhabited island, and having proceeded to wear ship, stood as near for the desert island as the wind would allow them.

In this matter, however, they had to overcome a considerable difficulty. From the time when Ramsay's figure was first lost in the distance, up to the time of their turning back, they had been running free, with a heavy and increasing breeze in their favour. Against this they had now to beat up-the breeze fast quickening into a gale, and with every disadvantage imposed on them by having at best only guessed at the course just run; not being by any means certain of the land which they were seeking, nor yet too sufficiently masters of the art of navigation.

Perseverance they had, and courage they possessed in abundance-two qualities so necessary in the overcoming

of difficulties; but still there were fearful odds against them. The first step taken by the mutineers was to ap point their various officers. Herbert was appointed acting captain till such time as Ramsay could be recovered; Cresswell and three others, from the fore and maintops and forecastie, were to be the lieutenants; and the corporal was to be a sort of fighting captain, to command the marines, and be at the elbow of Herbert on any emergency. In case of any such arising, the captain was also to call a council of the whole five to regulate their proceedings by vote--the majority to carry the day. Numerous other alterations and improvements--as the mutineers considered them to be-were also followed up, and, among the rest, the dividing among themselves the effects of Livingstone, which were of course still on board, and were thus allotted for division, with that good and inimitable kindness, the preventing the ghost of the departed from being jealous of any mutineer in particular.

By this time noon had arrived, and still the wind blew more directly than ever in the very course which they wished to pursue. The dark blue waves, capped with the snow-like foam that broke and ran in long flittering lines upon the glowing ridges, seemed with every passing gust to grow more formidable and threatening--the sky gradually deepened from a mottled blue and lead to one sombre canopy of the latter colour, streaked here and there with a few livid clouds of a deeper indigo, flying over the louring face of the dim expanse with the swiftness and untiring speed of Time itself.

Still the seamen would not shorten sail. They pictured to themselves, and but too truly, the heart-broken wretchedness and woes of the unhappy solitary, as night descended on the sea, gloomy, threatening, and tempestuous; his scanty means of subsistence nearly exhausted-his frame and mind alike worn out by the hopelessness of watching for some sail-either that of his own captain relenting, or of some stranger with a heart less savage, Then, as both failed, no shelter was there to receive him for the night; the beast of the forest howled for him, if he lay despairing on the shore; the serpent might with equal facility prey upon him, if, like the birds of the air, he took refuge in the trees; while the shark, the monster of the deep, played round his prison, and viewed him as the criminal destined to be the victim of some of the lower creation, to whatever element they might belong.

Nothing more was needed to stimulate them on to the