enough to have emanated from the cashiered paymaster. This point, however, they were able most easily to deter~ mine.

The corporal had ruled that every birth in the island should be registered. - Holdout, as register, had given one of these certificates of birth to Cresswell for his son lately born, and on the mutineer's producing and comparing the handwriting of this with that of the fatal scrolls, not a doubt could remain that they were the produce of the same pen and party.

The seals of the bottles, being identical, were next examined, but neither were able to recognise their device. On the whole aspect of the case, however, it was determined instantly to arrest Holdout and the master, and seize all their papers, according to the true government fashion, liberal or despotic, to see whether these afforded proofs either of the guilt or innocence of the suspected prisoners.

Not an instant was lost in carrying this decision into effect; Mustapha, with one party well armed, set off to take the master, and Cresswell, with similar support, to pounce upon the sleeker person of the luckless Holdout.

The terrors of guilt were clearly visible in the countenance of the latter, as he saw the grim intruders of his dwelling surround his person, while Cresswell told him he was arrested. The master, however, with the utmost assurance, poured forth upon Mustapha's eyes and limbs as many objurgations as if still supported by the whole articles of war.

"Thank ye, Master Soundings, thank ye, heartily, for anything," said old Mustapha in reply; "but before ye heave any further ahead with that sort of discoorse, be kind enough to look at your ticker, and see how many bells it is, that you may know when and where you were arrested?"

The master's only reply to this was, to give the old seaman a very energetic assurance that his, Mustapha's, mother was of the canine breed, and the female sex.

case,

"I can't see what that ere fact has to do with this here Mr. Soundings," coolly replied the caliph; and since you won't oblige me by letting me know how you keep your time, I must just look for myself."

With these words, and before the master was aware of his intention, Mustapha quickly but gently laid hold of the steel chain depending from the master's fob, and drew out the watch attached. While pretending to examine the

K*

dial, the very copious oaths of its peppery possessor, the quartermaster, saw at a glance that the seal appended to the chain bore the same coat of arms with that impressed on the corks of the traitorous bottles.

Placing the whole in his pocket without uttering a word, he ordered the master off to the mutineers' barracks in the citadel, and sending the master's wife into the house of one of her next neighbours, as he said, "for a drop of consolation or any other licker," he proceeded to search her husband's desk. Nothing else was, however, found in point but some detached workings of navigation questions, which gave the same latitude and longitude as that described in the scrolls, and proved that the writer, notwithstanding all the vigilance of his captors, had contrived to take the observations necessary to work out these nautical questions.

CHAPTER XXVIII.

"When most her suit young Mercy doth entreat.
Woman she makes her dear ambassadress."

THE two hours' time which was allowed for dinner had barely expired, when the hoarse rattle of the drum from the neighbouring citadel drew all the garrison to quarters. Everything being reported ready for action, all hands were summoned to the great square, on the very crown, or nearly so, of the rocky fortress, to hold a wittenagemote, or council of wise men, on the fate of Holdout and the master, and the important facts concerning them, of which discovery had so recently been made.

As these general assemblies were matters of no very unusual occurrence, the mutineers were fully accustomed to go through all the attendant forms with the most perfect gravity and business-like deportment.

With great attention and silence they heard Mustapha state the manner in which the papers had been found, the seals securing them, the circumstances that pointed suspicion on the accused parties, and the arrests that had been made. The fatal documents themselves were then handed round.

On the subsiding of the general hum occasioned by the remarks on these damning proofs, there was a general cry for the culprits to be produced one by one. Accordingly, the master was led forth from the cabin where he had been confined, and being obliged to mount a barrel, which had been purposely tilted on its end, while a marine stood sentry by him with a loaded musket, he remained a conspicuous object for the examination of the mutineers.

"Well, you ould limb of the devil,” cried an Irish foretopman, who entertained a long-standing and most special grudge against the prisoner, "do you know anything of these little bits of potted paper that some one's been after preserving so carefully?"

"I canna say that I do," stoutly replied the northern. "Will you swear that, Mr. Soundings?" inquired Mustapha.

"I could if it were necessary, but I have many conscientious scruples as to swearing, and I cannot see why a gentleman's word should na be as good as his aith." "No fear yours is," quoth a third.

"Come, come, old gemman !" interrupted a fourth, "let's have none of your conscience-like scruples here. If you come to that, you may as well say you did the trick at once-we're up to that sort of gammon. D'ye think we never heard of soft soap afore to-day? Will you say you had no sort of hand in this whatever ?"

"On my honour as a Scotchman, I assure you I did not write one word of it."

"'Vast heaving!" said some other of his numerous examiners; "wait till you're asked whether you wrote it or not, we hav'nt come to that yet."

"Just so," chimed in some one else. "But perhaps, as you're so clever in working double altitudes, you'll tell us how the seal of your watch came to be used for this queer purpose?"

"Do you expect me, then, to call over the names of every man I've lent my seal to since I've been in the island ?"

66

No, we don't ask you to have such a wery good memory as all that comes to, Mr. Soundings," replied Mustapha; "but we do look for a little of your condescension to tell us how it was you came to take observations for working out the longitude and latitude of the island, without our commodore ever so much as asking for it."

"Why, because, man, it was my duty and profession, and if I hadna done something of the sort, lying so long here on my oars, I should have got so rusty, I shouldn't have known how to manage it on a pinch, if you'd wanted it."

"Thank ye, sir, thank ye,-that's what we call too obliging. Shipmates, do any of ye want to ask the prisoner any further question?"

"Just answer me this one thing, Soundings," said one of the oldest hands, "and if you can manage such a thing -try for once to speak the truth-I know 'tis asking a bit of a favour of ye-but ye see afore long, you may be either in Abraham's bosom or Beelzebub's breeches, and speaking strait may sarve you to the better berth of the two.

Do you mean to tell us in a solemnified manner that you had no sort of knowledge of this matter?"

“As you are my judges, I tell ye I had not the most distant knowledge in the world of it."

"What!" began another; but before he could complete the sentence, the proceedings were interrupted by the sudden invasion of thirty or forty of the seamen's wives, who, with tears and cries and vehement gesticulations expressive of their grief, rushed in upon the deliberating council, and implored the instant liberation of Holdout.

Before giving any attention to this unexpected demand, Mustapha made a signal to the sentry guarding the master, and the latter was quickly moved into secure confinement once more.

But this was the least of the new evils. The women, whose especial property the Rev. Holdout seemed to have made himself, would take no denial of their prayer, and nothing in the least resembling an assent seemed ever likely to be given them. On the contrary, the men, angry and annoyed at finding their power over the culprits disputed, summarily prevented any further appeals to their clemency, by adjourning to the court which surrounded their chief magazine, and shutting the gates on the tenderhearted, at once put it to the general vote what should be the sentence on the master.

In reply to this question, put formally from the head of their number, Mustapha, the answer by the majority was, -"Guilty-DEATH." From this summary union of crime and sentence, a very respectable minority were dissentient. Many considered that the guilt was not sufficiently proved, others, even if proved, that the punishment of death was too severe on one who had never given any parole as to his conduct, and in whom, therefore, any attempt to gain his liberty was not only natural, but such as, after all, they had no right to punish with such a sentence. The answer to this refinement was characteristic-that their right was safely founded in their might, and that expedience and necessity were full justifications for that degree of rigour which was so necessary as an example to the other prisoners.

The question was then raised by the other party, whether, before condemnation was passed on the master, they would not previously examine Holdout, since the writing found was confessedly that of his hand.

Sufficiently tender-hearted himself in all his thoughts and