"Look out!" cried Luke, with arms extended and ten fingers in a claw-like position.

"Now then," growled Gunter.

But the treacherous wave fell short, and David Bright was on the point of being dropt into the sea when his friends' fingers clawed him back to safety.

"Better make fast a rope to him," suggested Billy, in breathless anxiety.

The skipper of the Coper acted on the advice at once, and made the end of a rope fast round Bright's waist.

Again the boat rose, surged seaward, then swooped towards the Coper, against which it would have been dashed but for the strong arms of Luke. It rose so high that the drunk man was for a moment on a level with the gunwale. It was too good a chance to be missed.

"Shove!" roared Gunter.

Over went the skipper into the arms of Luke, who lost his balance, and both rolled into the bottom of the boat as it sank into the succeeding hollow.

The danger being past, poor Billy signalised the event, and at the same time relieved his feelings, with a lusty cheer.

In a very short time Joe Davidson steered the Evening Star close to their tossing boat. Billy stood ready with the painter, and the instant the sides touched, he was over the rail like a monkey and made fast.

The taking of the drunk man out of the boat was by no means so difficult as getting him into it had been. Joe, Luke, Spivin, and Zulu, as well as Billy, leaned over the side of the smack, with their ten arms extended and their fifty fingers curled like crabs' claws or grappling-irons, ready to hook on and hold on. David Bright's extended and helpless form was held in position by Gunter. When it came within reach the fifty fingers closed; the boat surged away, and David was safe, though still held in suspense over the deep.

But that was only for a moment. A good heave placed him on the vessel's rail, and another laid him on the deck.

"Brought on board his own smack like a dead pig!" muttered Gunter, whose anger at the skipper rekindled when he saw him once more in safety.

"He's fifty times better than you, even as he lies, you surly old grampus," cried Billy, with flushed cheeks and flashing eyes.

"Come, Billy," said Joe Davidson, kindly, "lend a hand, boy, to carry him below. It's a sad break-down, but remember—he's not past redemption. Come."

Four of the fishermen raised the skipper in their strong arms, and conveyed him to his own bunk, where they left him to sleep off the effects of his debauch.



CHAPTER SEVENTEEN.

CONVERSE IN THE CABIN—THE TEMPTER AGAIN—AN ACCIDENT.

One night, some days after the incident just recorded, the Evening Star shot her gear, in obedience to orders, on the port hand, and proceeded, with the rest of the fleet, to give a pressing invitation to those fish which inhabited that particular shoal in the North Sea known to fishermen by the name of Skimlico. The name, when properly spelt, runs thus: Schiermonik-oog. But our fishermen, with a happy disregard of orthography, and, perhaps, with an eye to that brevity which is said to be the soul of wit, prefer to call it Skimlico.

When the gear was down the men retired to their little cabin to refresh themselves with a meal and a pipe.

The skipper, who had recovered neither his spirits nor his self-respect since his recent fall, preferred to remain on deck. Billy, who had never lost either, joined the revellers below—with all the more satisfaction that Evan, the rescued mate of the Sparrow, was with them.

"Out o' the road, Zulu," cried Ned Spivin, pushing the cook aside, and sitting down close to the fire, "I'll have a bit o' fish."

He stuck on the end of his knife a piece of sole, out of which the life had barely departed, and held it up before the fire to roast.

"Hand me a mug o' tea, an' a biscuit, Zulu," said Joe Davidson; "fill it up, boy. I like good measure."

"Are them taters ready?" asked Luke Trevor. "An' the plum-duff? You haven't got any for us to-day, have 'ee?"

"Shut up!" cried Zulu. "How many hands you tink I've got?"

"Eight at the very least," said Spivin, "an' I can prove it."

"How you do dat?" asked Zulu, opening up his great eyes.

"Easy. Hold out your paws. Isn't that one hand?" (pointing to his left.)

"Yes."

"An' doesn't that make two hands?" (pointing to his right.)

"Yes."

"Well, ain't one hand and two hands equal to three hands, you booby? an' don't you know that monkeys have hands instead o' feet? So as you're a monkey, that's six hands. And haven't you a handsome face, an' a handsome figgur, which is eight, you grampus! Come, use one o' your many hands an' pass the biscuits."

"Sartinly!" said Zulu, at once kicking a small bit of biscuit which Spivin still held in his hand to the other end of the cabin, where it fell into the lap of Trevor, who thanked Zulu kindly, and ate it up.

"Oh! forgib me, massa," cried Zulu, in mock repentance. "I's nebber nebber do it again! But you know you ax me to use one o' my hands to pass de biskit. Well, I 'bey orders. I use 'im, an' pass de biskit on to Luke."

"Come, Ned, Zulu's more than a match for you there. Let him alone," cried Joe Davidson, "and don't be so stingy with your sugar, Zulu. Here, fill up again."

The conversation at this point became what is sometimes styled general, but was interrupted now and then, as one and another of the men dropped into the anecdotal tone, and thus secured undivided attention for a longer or shorter space according to his powers in story-telling.

"What a appetite you've got, Luke," said Joe, as he helped his comrade to a second large plateful of salt beef, potatoes, and duff.

"Hold on, Joe! I've a pretty fair appetite, but am not quite up to that."

"Nonsense, Luke, you've only got to try. A man has no notion what 'e can do till 'e tries."

"Ah, that's true," said Ned Spivin, checking a lump of salt beef on the end of his clasp-knife half way to his mouth; "did I ever tell 'ee, lads, that little hanecdote about a man we called Glutton, he was such an awful eater?"

"No, never heard on it," said several voices.

"Well, then, this is 'ow it was," said Spivin, clearing his voice. "You must know, I was once in Callyforny, where all the goold comes from. Me an' most o' my mates had runned away from our ship to the diggin's, you see, which of course none on us would have thought of doin'—oh dear no—if it hadn't bin that the skipper runned away too; so it was no use for us to stop behind, d'ee see? Well, we was diggin' one day, in a place where there was a lot o' red Injins—not steam engines, you know, but the sort o' niggers what lives out there. One o' them Injins was named Glutton—he was such an awful eater—and one o' my mates, whose name was Samson, bet a bag o' goold-dust, that he'd make the glutton eat till he bu'sted. I'm afeard that Samson was groggy at the time. Howiver, we took him up, an' invited Glutton to a feast next day. He was a great thin savage, over six futt high, with plenty breadth of beam about the shoulders, and a mouth that seemed made a' purpus for shovellin' wittles into. We laid in lots of grub because we was all more or less given to feedin'—an' some of us not bad hands at it. Before we began the feast Samson, who seemed to be repentin' of his bet, took us a-one side an' says, 'Now mind,' says he, 'I can't say exactly how he'll bu'st, or when he'll bu'st, or what sort of a bu'st he'll make of it.' 'Oh, never mind that,' says we, laughin'. 'We won't be par-tickler how he does it. If he bu'sts at all, in any fashion, we'll be satisfied, and admit that you've won.'

"Well, we went to work, an' the way that Injin went in for grub was quite awful. You wouldn't have believed it if you'd seen it."

"P'r'aps not," said Zulu, with a grin.

"An' when we'd all finished we sat glarin' at him, some of us half believin' that he'd really go off, but he took no notice. On he went until he'd finished a small leg o' pork, two wild-ducks, six plover, eight mugs o' tea, an' fifteen hard-boiled eggs. But there was no sign o' bu'stin'. Glutton was as slim to look at as before he began. At this pint Samson got up an' went out o' the hut. In a minute or so he came back with a bark basket quite shallow, but about fourteen inches square, an' full of all kinds of eggs—for the wild-birds was breedin' at the time. 'What's that for?' says we. 'For Glutton, when he's ready for 'em,' says he. 'There's six dozen here, an' if that don't do it, I've got another basket ready outside.' With that he sets the basket down in front o' the Injin, who just gave a glance at it over a goose drumstick he was tearin' away at. Well, Samson turned round to sit down in his place again, when somethin' or other caught hold of his foot tripped him up, an' down he sat squash! into the basket of eggs. You niver did see sich a mess! There was sich a lot, an' Samson was so heavy, that the yolks squirted up all round him, an' a lot of it went slap into some of our faces. For one moment we sat glarin', we was so took by surprise, and Glutton was so tickled that he gave a great roar of laughter, an' swayed himself from side to side, an' fore an' aft like a Dutchman in a cross sea. Of course we joined him. We couldn't help it, but we was brought up in the middle by Samson sayin', while he scraped himself, 'Well, boys, I've won.' 'Won!' says I, 'how so? He ain't bu'sted yet.' 'Hasn't he?' cried Samson. 'Hasn't he gone on eatin' till he bu'sted out larfin?' We was real mad at 'im, for a' course that wasn't the kind o' bu'stin we meant; and the end of it was, that we spent the most o' that night disputin' the pint whether Samson had lost or won. We continued the dispute every night for a month, an' sometimes had a free fight over it by way of a change, but I don't think it was ever settled. Leastways it wasn't up to the time when I left the country."

"Here, Zulu, hand me a mug o' tea," said Billy Bright; "the biggest one you've got."

"What's make you turn so greedy?" asked Zulu.

"It's not greed," returned Billy, "but Ned's little story is so hard an' tough, that I can't get it down dry."

"I should think not. It would take the Glutton himself to swallow it with a bucket of tea to wash it down," said Luke Trevor.

At this point the conversation was interrupted by an order from the skipper to go on deck and "jibe" the smack, an operation which it would be difficult, as well as unprofitable, to explain to landsmen. When it was completed the men returned to the little cabin, where conversation was resumed.

"Who'll spin us a yarn now, something more believable than the last?" asked Billy, as they began to refill pipes.

"Do it yourself, boy," said Joe.

"Not I. Never was a good hand at it," returned Billy, "but I know that the mate o' the Sparrow there can spin a good yarn. Come, Evan, tell us about that dead man what came up to point out his own murderer."

"I'm not sure," said Evan, "that the story is a true one, though there's truth at the bottom of it, for we all know well enough that we sometimes pick up a corpse in our nets."

"Know it!" exclaimed Joe, "I should think we do. Why, it's not so long ago that I picked one up myself. But what were ye goin' to say, mate?"

"I was goin' to say that this yarn tells of what happened long before you an' me was born; so we can't be wery sure on it you know."

"Why not?" interrupted Ned Spivin. "The battle o' Trafalgar happened long before you an' me was born; so did the battle o' Waterloo, yet we're sure enough about them, ain't we?"

"Right you are, Ned," returned Evan; "it would be a bad look-out for the world if we couldn't believe or prove the truth of things that happened before we was born!"

"Come, shut up your argiments," growled Gunter, "an' let Evan go on wi' his yarn."

"Well, as I was a-goin' to say," resumed Evan, "the story may or may not be true, but it's possible, an' it was told to me when I was a boy by the old fisherman as said he saw the dead man his-self. One stormy night the fleet was out—for you must know the fishin' was carried on in the old days in the same way pretty much, though they hadn't steamers to help 'em like we has now. They was goin' along close-hauled, with a heavy sea on, not far, it must have been, from the Silver Pits—though they wasn't discovered at that time."

We may interrupt Evan here, to explain that the Silver Pits is a name given to a particular part of the North Sea which is frequented by immense numbers of soles. The man who by chance discovered the spot kept his secret, it is said, long enough to enable him to make a considerable amount of money. It was observed, however, that he was in the habit of falling behind the fleet frequently, and turning up with splendid hauls of "prime" fish. This led to the discovery of his haunt, and the spot named the Silver Pits, is still a prolific fishing-ground.

"Well," continued Evan, "there was a sort of half furriner aboard. He wasn't a reg'lar fisherman—never served his apprenticeship to it, you know,—an' was named Zola. The skipper, whose name was John Dewks, couldn't abide him, an' they often used to quarrel, specially when they was in liquor. There was nobody on deck that night except the skipper and Zola, but my old friend—Dawson was his name—was in his bunk lyin' wide awake. He heard that Zola an' the skipper was disputin' about somethin', but couldn't make out what was said—only he know'd they was both very angry. At last he heard the skipper say sharply—'Ha! would you dare?'

"'Yes, I vill dare,' cries Zola, in his broken English, 'I vill cut your throat.' With that there seemed to be a kind of scuffle. Then there was a loud cry, and Dawson with the other men rushed on deck.

"'Oh!' cried Zola, lookin' wild, 'de skipper! him fall into de sea! Quick, out wid de boat!'

"Some ran to the boat but the mate stopped 'em. 'It's no use, boys. She couldn't live in such a sea, an' our poor skipper is fathoms down by this time. It would only sacrifice more lives to try.' 'This was true,' Dawson said, 'for the night was as dark as pitch, an' a heavy sea on.'

"Dawson went to the man an' whispered in his ear. 'You know you are lying, Zola; you cut the skipper's throat.'

"'No, I didn't; he felled overboard,' answered the man in such an earnest tone that Dawson's opinion was shook. But next day when they was at breakfast, he noticed that the point of Zola's clasp-knife was broken off.

"'Hallo! Zola,' says he, 'what's broke the point of your knife?'

"The man was much confused, but replied quickly enough that he broke it when cleaning fish—it had dropped on the deck an' broke.

"This brought back all Dawson's suspicion, but as he could prove nothing he thought it best to hold his tongue. That afternoon, however, it fell calm, an' they found themselves close aboard of one of the smacks which had sailed astern of them on the port quarter durin' the night. She appeared to be signallin', so the mate hove-to till he came up.

"'We've got the body o' your skipper aboard,' they said, when near enough to hail.

"Dawson looked at Zola. His lips were compressed, and he was very stern, but said nothin'. Nobody spoke except the mate, who told them to shove out the boat and fetch the body. This was done, and it was found that the poor man had been wounded in the breast. 'Murdered!' the men whispered, as they looked at Zola.

"'Why you looks at me so?' he says, fiercely; 'skipper falls over an' sink; git among wrecks at de bottom, an' a nail scratch him.'

"Nobody answered, but when the corpse was put down in the hold the mate examined it and found the broken point of Zola's knife stickin' in the breast-bone.

"That night at supper, while they were all eatin' an' talkin' in low tones, the mate said in an easy off-hand tone, 'Hand me your knife, Zola, for a moment.' Now, his askin' that was so natural-like that the man at once did what he was asked, though next moment he saw the mistake. His greatest mistake, however, was that he did not fling the knife away when he found it was broken; but they do say that 'murder will out.' The mate at once fitted the point to the broken knife. Zola leaped up and tried to snatch another knife from one o' the men, but they was too quick for him. He was seized, and his hands tied, and they were leadin' him along the deck to put him in the hold when he burst from them and jumped overboard. They hove-to at once, an' out with the boat, but never saw Zola again; he must have gone down like a stone."

"That was a terrible end," said Joe, "and him all unprepared to die."

"True, Joe, but are we all prepared to die?" rejoined Evan, looking around, earnestly. "It is said that there's a day comin' when the sea shall give up all its dead, and the secrets of men, whatever they are, shall be revealed."

From this point Evan, whose earnest spirit was always hungering after the souls of men, led the conversation to religious subjects, and got his audience into a serious, attentive state of mind.

We have said that David Bright had remained that light on deck, but he did not on that account lose all that went on in the little cabin. He heard indeed the light conversation and chaff of the earlier part of the night but paid no heed to it. When, however, Evan began the foregoing anecdote, his attention was aroused, and as the speaker sat close to the foot of the companion every word he uttered was audible on deck.

At the time, our fallen skipper was giving way to despair. He had been so thoroughly determined to give up drink; had been so confident of the power of his really strong will, and had begun the struggle so well and also continued for a time so successfully, that this fall had quite overwhelmed him. It was such a thorough fall, too, accompanied by such violence to his poor boy, and to one of his best men, that he had no heart for another effort. And once again the demon tempter came to him, as he stood alone there, and helpless on the deserted deck. A faint gleam of light, shooting up the companion, illuminated his pale but stern features which had an unusual expression on them, but no eye was there to look upon those features, save the all-searching Eye of God.

"It was soon over with him!" he muttered, as he listened to Evan telling of Zola's leap into the sea. "An' a good riddance to myself as well as to the world it would be if I followed his example. I could drop quietly over, an' they'd never find it out till—but—"

"Come, don't hesitate," whispered the demon. "I thought you were a man once, but now you seem to be a coward after all!"

It was at this critical point that Evan, the mate of the Sparrow, all ignorant of the eager listener overhead, began to urge repentance on his unbelieving comrades, and pointed to the Crucified One—showing that no sinner was beyond hope, that Peter had denied his Master with oaths and curses, and that even the thief on the cross had life enough left for a saving look.

"We have nothing to do, lads, only to submit," he said, earnestly.

"Nothing to do!" thought David Bright in surprise, not unmingled with contempt as he thought of the terrible fight he had gone through before his fall.

"Nothing to do!" exclaimed John Gunter in the cabin, echoing, as it were, the skipper's thought, with much of his surprise and much more of his contempt. "Why, mate, I thought that you religious folk felt bound to pray, an' sing, an' preach, an' work!"

"No, lad—no—not for salvation," returned Evan; "we have only to accept salvation—to cease from refusing it and scorning it. After we have got it from and in Jesus, we will pray, and sing, and work, ay, an' preach too, if we can, for the love of the Master who 'loved us and gave Himself for us.'"

Light began to break in on the dark mind of David Bright, as he listened to these words, and earnestly did he ponder them, long after the speaker and the rest of the crew had turned in.

Daylight began to flow softly over the sea, like a mellow influence from the better land, when the net was hauled.

Soon the light intensified and showed the rest of the fleet floating around in all directions, and busily engaged in the same work—two of the nearest vessels being the mission smack and that of Singing Peter. Ere long the fish were cleaned, packed, put on board the steamer and off to market. By that time a dead calm prevailed, compelling the fishermen to "take things easy."

"Billy," said David Bright, "fetch me that bit of wood and a hatchet."

Billy obeyed.

"Now then, let's see how well you'll cut that down to the size o' this trunk—to fit on where that bit has bin tore off."

The skipper was seated on a pile of boxes; he flung his left hand with a careless swing, on the fish-box on which Billy was about to cut the piece of wood, and pointed to the trunk which needed repair. Billy raised the axe and brought it down with the precision and vigour peculiar to him. Instead of slicing off a lamp of wood, however, the hatchet struck a hard knot, glanced off, and came down on his father's open palm, into which it cut deeply.

"Oh! father," exclaimed the poor boy, dropping the axe and standing as if petrified with horror as the blood spouted from the gaping wound, flowed over the fish-box, and bespattered the deck.

He could say no more.

"Shove out the boat, boys," said the skipper promptly, as he shut up the wounded hand and bound it tightly in that position with his pocket-handkerchief to stop the bleeding.

Joe Davidson, who had seen the accident, and at once understood what was wanted, sprang to the boat at the same moment with Luke and Spivin. A good heave, at the tackle; a hearty shove with strong shoulders, and the stern was over the rail. Another shove and it was in the sea.

"Lucky we are so close to her," said Joe, as he jumped into the boat followed by Luke and Gunter.

"Lucky indeed," responded Luke.

Somehow David Bright managed to roll or jump or scramble into his boat as smartly with one hand as with two. It is a rare school out there on the North Sea for the practice of free-hand gymnastics!

"Bear away for the mission smack, Joe."

No need to give Joe that order. Ere the words had well passed the skipper's lips he and Luke Trevor were bending their powerful backs, and, with little Billy at the steering oar, the boat of the Evening Star went bounding over the waves towards the fisherman's floating refuge for wounded bodies and souls.



CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

A DAY OF CALM FOLLOWED BY A NIGHT OF STORM.

A fine-toned manly voice was heard, as the boat approached the mission smack, singing one of the popular hymns which are now pretty well-known throughout the fishing fleets.

"No mistaking that voice," said David Bright turning an amused look on Billy; "Singin' Peter won't knock off till he's under the sod or under the sea."

"Then he'll never knock off at all," returned Billy, "for Luke there has bin tellin' me that we only begin to sing rightly a song of praise that will never end when we git into the next world."

"That depends, lad, on whether we goes up or down."

"Well, I s'pose it does. But tell me, daddy, ain't the hand very bad? I'm so awful sorry, you know."

"It might ha' bin worse, Billy, but don't you take on so, my boy. We'll be all right an' ship-shape when we gets it spliced or fixed up somehow, on board the mission-ship."

The hand was not however, so easily fixed up as David Bright seemed to expect.

"Come down an' let's have a look at it, David," said the skipper, when the vessel's deck was gained.

By that time Singing Peter had stopped his tune, or, rather, he had changed it into a note of earnest sympathy, for he was a very tender-hearted man, and on terms of warm friendship with the master of the Evening Star.

"It's a bad cut," said Peter, when the gaping gash in the poor man's palm was laid bare, and the blood began to flow afresh. "We'll have to try a little o' the surgeon's business here. You can take a stitch in human flesh I daresay, skipper? If you can't, I'll try."

The mission skipper was, however, equal to the occasion. He sponged the wound clean; put a couple of stitches in it with sailor-like neatness— whether with surgeon-like exactness we cannot tell—drew the edges of the wound still more closely together by means of strips of sticking plaster; applied lint and bandages, and, finally, did up our skipper's fist in a manner that seemed quite artistic to the observant men around him.

"A regular boxin'-glove," exclaimed David, hitting the operator a gentle tap on the nose with it.

"Thank 'ee, friend," said the amateur surgeon, as he proceeded to re-stow his materials in the medicine chest; "you know that the Fishermen's Mission never asks a rap for its services, but neither does it expect to receive a rap without asking. Come, David, you mustn't flourish it about like that. We all know you're a plucky fellow, but it'll never splice properly if you go on so."

"Hold on, Mr Missionary!" cried Gunter, as the lid of the chest was being closed, "don't shut up yet. I wants some o' your doctor's stuff."

"All right my hearty! What do you want?"

"He wants a pair o' eye-glasses," cried Billy, whose heart was comforted, and whose spirits were raised by the success of the operation on his father's hand; "you see he's so short-sighted that he can't see no good in nobody but his-self."

"Shut up, you young catfish! See here," said Gunter, stretching out his wrists, which were red and much swollen.

"Oh! I can give you something for that;" so saying the skipper supplied the fisherman with a little ointment, and then, going to a cupboard, produced a pair of worsted cuffs. "You rub 'em well with that first," he said, "an' then wear the cuffs."

"He'll want more cuffs than that," said Billy.

"I think not my boy," said the skipper, with a benignant look, as he stooped to lock the chest. "When these are worn-out he can have more."

"Well, if you'd take my advice," returned Billy, "you'd give him another pair. A cuff on each side of his head would do him a world of good."

Gunter turned sharply to make a grasp at his young tormentor, but the lad had taken care to have the cabin table between them, and at once sprang laughing up the companion.

"He's a smart boy, that," remarked the mission skipper.

"Rather too smart," growled Gunter, as he pocketed his salve and cuffs, and went on deck.

"Smart enough!" remarked David Bright with a low chuckle of satisfaction.

"Come now," said the Missionary, "you'll stop and have some coffee or cocoa with us. You can't work wi' that hand, you know. Besides, there'll be no fishin' till this calm's over. So we mean to have a little meetin' in the afternoon. We're in luck too, just now," he added in a lower voice, "for we've got a real parson aboard. That's him talkin' to my mate. He's here on a visit—partly for his health, I believe—a regular clergyman of the Church of England and a splendid preacher, let me tell you. You'll stop, now, won't you?"

David Bright's countenance grew sad. The memory of his recent failure and fall came over him.

"What's the use o' me attendin' your meetin's?" he said, almost angrily; "my soul's past recovery, for I don't believe in your prayin' an' psalm-singin'."

"You trusted me freely wi' your hand, David, though I'm no surgeon. Why won't you trust me a little wi' your soul, though I'm no parson— especially as it seems to be in a very bad way by your own account? Have a talk wi' the parson. He's got such a way with him that he's sure to do you good."

It was not so much the words thus spoken as the grave, kind, sensible tones and looks which accompanied them, that won the despairing fisherman.

"Well, I'll stop," he said, with a short laugh; "the cocoa may do me good, even though the meetin' don't."

"Now you're becoming soft and unmanly—a regular old wife," whispered the demon, who had watched him anxiously throughout the whole morning.

"The boat's alongside, father," Billy called out, at that moment down the open skylight.

"That's right," replied the father in a strong hearty voice. "You go aboard wi' the rest, my boy, an' come back in the arternoon when you see 'em hoist the mission-flag. I'm goin' to stop aboard, an we'll all attend the meetin' together. An' look you, Billy, fetch my Noo Testament with 'ee—the one your mother gave me."

"Praise the Lord for these words!" said the mission skipper.

He did not say it very loud, for he was not by nature a demonstrative man; neither did he whisper it, for he was not ashamed to thank his God for mercies received.

At the same moment the demon fled away for that time—according to the true word, "Resist the devil, and he will flee from you."

David Bright did not talk much that afternoon. His injured hand gave him considerable pain, but it was not that which silenced him. Thoughts too deep for utterance were passing through his brain. It was the turning-point of his life; and, while his mind was busy with the great issues that must be faced sooner or later by all mankind, he listened with mingled surprise, hope, fear, and pleasure, to the free and hearty converse of the godly crew of the gospel-ship, as they discoursed pleasantly, now of the homes in Yarmouth or Gorleston, now of the home above; or sang, with stentorian voices, some of the lively hymns that are happily current in the present day, or prayed in the ungrammatical language, and with the intense fervour, of untutored but thoroughly earnest men.

They thought that David was suffering from his injury, and wisely let him alone, though they occasionally gave him a cheering word, and frequently plied him with hot cocoa, which he preferred much, he said, to coffee.

This may seem to some a rather incongruous way of presenting religious and secular things. It may be so, but we are not careful to preserve congruity, or to dilute our dish to please the palate of the fastidious. This world is full of incongruities, and we are endeavouring to present that portion of it now under consideration as it actually is at the present time.

The heartiest, the most genial, and perhaps the noisiest fisherman there that day was the man whom we have referred to more than once as Singing Peter. It seemed as if he were intoxicated with joy, and could not refrain from bursting into song in praise of Redeeming Love. But Peter was by no means exclusive in his ideas. He could descend to the simple matters of this life when needful. Like David Bright he was a temporary visitor to the mission-ship, and waited for the afternoon meeting. Peter possessed:

"A heart at leisure from itself, To soothe and sympathise,"

and found time to have a private talk with David, whom he drew out so tenderly, yet powerfully, that he wormed from him the whole story of his spiritual as well as spirituous warfare. He even got him down into the cabin alone, and, when there, proposed that they should pray together. To this David at once agreed, and the good man prayed with such simple fervour that David found himself ere long weeping like a child. That the prayer of Singing Peter was in harmony with his spirit was evident from the deep "Amen!" which he uttered at its conclusion.

"Many a time, Peter," he said, grasping his friend's hand, as they rose from their knees, "many a time has my face bin washed wi' salt water from the sea, but it's not often bin dabbled wi' salt water from my eyes!"

In the afternoon the weather became unusually sultry, and as the calm continued, many of the fishing-smacks closed by imperceptible degrees around the mission-ship, whose flag flying at the mizzen told that the worship of God was soon to begin. Several of the other smacks also flew Bethel-flags. These belonged to the whole-hearted ones who had fairly and boldly come out on the Lord's side. Others drew near, although they did not fly the flag. Some of these belonged to the half-hearted, who wanted medicines or books, and were rather indifferent about the meeting, though willing enough, perhaps, to remain to it.

One way or another there was soon a long tail of boats floating astern of the gospel-ship, and a goodly congregation on her deck. Her skipper was very busy. Books were being actively exchanged. One or two men wanted to sign the pledge. Salves, and plasters, and pills, were slightly in demand, for even North Sea fishermen, tough though they be, are subject to physical disturbance.

At last the hour arrived, and the heavy-booted, rough-jacketed, sou'-westered, burly congregation adjourned to the hold, where, appropriately seated on fish-trunks, they opened their hymn-books and began to sing.

They had a harmonium—provided, of course, by the Mission—and it chanced that the mission skipper had music enough in him to play a simple accompaniment on it, but the strong-lunged congregation drowned it out in the first five minutes.

Then the invalid clergyman stood up and prayed, and read a chapter of God's Word, after which he preached—ay, preached in a way that drew tears from some, and hearty exclamations of thankfulness from others. It was not the power of rhetoric or of eloquence though he possessed both, so much as that mighty power, which consists in being thoroughly and intensely earnest in what one says, and in using a natural, conversational tone.

There were more signings of the temperance pledge after the service, and one or two whose minds had been wavering before, now came forward and offered to purchase Bethel-flags. Others wanted to purchase Testaments, prayer-books, and gospel compasses—the latter being the invention of an ingenious Christian. It consisted of a mariner's compass drawn on card-board, with appropriate texts of God's Word printed on the various "points." The same ingenious gentleman has more recently constructed a spiritual chart so to speak, on which are presented to the eye the various shoals, and quicksands, and rocks of sin, and danger, and temptation, that beset the Christian pilgrim, as well as the streams, rivers, and channels, that conduct him from the regions of Darkness into the realms of Light.

All this took up so much time that it was getting dark when our fishermen began to go over the side, and proceed to their several vessels.

Soon after that the aspect of nature entirely changed. The sultry calm gave place to a fast increasing breeze, which raised white crests on the darkening waves.

"A dirty night we're going to have of it," remarked David Bright to Singing Peter, as he got into his tossing boat with some difficulty.

"It's all in the Master's hands," replied Peter, looking up with a glad expression on his weatherworn face. With these words he left the mission smack and returned to his own vessel.

The fishermen of the North Sea had cause to remember that night, for one of the worst gales of the season burst upon them. Fishing was impossible. It was all that they could do to weather the gale. Sails were split and torn, rigging was damaged, and spars were sprung or carried away. The wind howled as if millions of wicked spirits were yelling in the blast. The sea rose in wild commotion, tossing the little smacks as if they had been corks, and causing the straining timbers to groan and creak. Many a deck was washed that night from stem to stern, and when grey morning broke cold and dreary over the foaming sea, not a few flags, half-mast high, told that some souls had gone to their account. Disaster had also befallen many of the smacks. While some were greatly damaged, a few were lost entirely with all their crews.

Singing Peter's vessel was among the lost. The brightening day revealed the fact that the well-known craft had disappeared. It had sunk with all hands, and the genial fisherman's strong and tuneful voice had ceased for ever to reverberate over the North Sea in order that it might for ever raise a louder and still more tuneful strain of deep-toned happiness among the harmonies of heaven.



CHAPTER NINETEEN.

RUTH FINDS THAT EVERYTHING SEEMS TO GO AGAINST HER.

Anxiously did Ruth Dotropy await the return of Captain Bream to Yarmouth, and patiently did she refrain, in the meantime, from questioning Mrs Bright as to her history before marriage, for that good woman's objection to be so questioned was quite sufficient to check her sensitive spirit. But poor Ruth's enthusiastic hopes were doomed to disappointment at that time, for, only a few days after the captain's departure, she received a letter from him, part of which ran as follows:—

"DEAR MISS RUTH,—I am exceedingly sorry and almost ashamed, to be obliged to say that I am unable to return to Yarmouth for some weeks at least. The fact is that I have for a long time been engaged in a piece of business—a sort of search—which has caused me much anxiety and frequent disappointment. My lawyer, however, now thinks he has hit on the right clue, so that I have good hope of being successful. In the meantime will you do your best to comfort the Miss Seawards in my absence, and explain to them that nothing but necessity could make me leave them in the lurch in this fashion," etcetera.

"How very provoking!" exclaimed Ruth, with a pretty little frown on her innocent face after reading the letter to her stately mother.

"Why provoking, dear?" asked Mrs Dotropy. "Surely we can enjoy the fine air of Yarmouth without Captain Bream, and although the dear Miss Seawards are very fond of him, they will not pine or lose their health because of his absence for a short time. Besides, have they not that wonderful theological library to divert them?"

"Yes, mother—it's not that, but I was so anxious to find out—"

She stopped short.

"Find out what, child?"

"Well now, mother, I can not keep it from you any longer. I will tell you my little secret if you promise not to reveal it to any living soul."

"How absurd you are, Ruth! Do you suppose that I shall go about the streets proclaiming your secret, whatever it is, to Tom, Dick, and Harry, even if it were worth telling, much less when it is probably not worth remembering? Of course I might let it slip, you know, by accident and when a thing slips there is no possibility of recovery, as I said once to your dear father that time when he slipped off the end of the pier into the water and had to be fished up by the waist-band of his trousers with grappling-irons, I think they called them—at all events they were very dangerous-looking things, and I've often argued with him—though I hate argument—that they might have gone into his body and killed him, yet he would insist that, being blunt, the thing was out of the question, though, as I carefully explained to him, the question had nothing to do with it—but it is useless arguing with you, Ruth—I mean, it was useless arguing with your father, dear man, for although he was as good as gold, he had a very confused mind, you know. What was it we were talking about?—oh yes!—your secret. Well, what is it?"

With a flushed face and eager look, Ruth said, "Mother, I cannot help being convinced that Mrs Bright the fisherman's wife, is no other than Captain Bream's lost sister!"

"If you cannot help being convinced, child, it is of no use my attempting to reason with you. But why think of such nonsense? If she is what you suppose, she must have been a Miss Bream before marriage."

"So she was!" exclaimed Ruth, with a look of triumph. I have found that out—only I fear that is not proof positive, because, you know, although not a common name, Bream is by no means singular.

"Well, but she would have been a lady—or—or would have had different manners if she had been Captain Bream's sister," objected Mrs Dotropy.

"That does not follow," said Ruth, quickly. "The captain may have risen from the ranks; we cannot tell; besides, Mrs Bright is very refined, both in manner and speech, compared with those around her. I was on the point one day of asking if she had a brother, when she seemed to draw up and cut the matter short; so I have had to fall back on my original plan of trying to bring the two face to face, which would at once settle the question, for of course they'd know each other."

"Dear child, why make such a mystery about it?" said Mrs Dotropy; "why not tell the captain of your suspicion, and ask him to go and see the woman?"

"Because it would be so cruel to raise his expectations, mother, and then perhaps find that I was wrong. It would disappoint him so terribly. But this reference to a 'search' in his letter makes me feel almost sure he is searching for this lost sister."

"Foolish child! It is a wild fancy of your romantic brain. Who ever heard," said the mother, "of a lawyer being employed to search for a sister? Depend upon it, this captain is in search of some deed,—a lost will, or a—an old parchment or a document of some sort, perhaps referring to a mismanaged property, or estate, or fortune, for things of that kind are often seen in the newspapers; though how the newspapers come to find out about them all is more than I can understand. I've often wondered at it. Ah! your dear father used to say in his facetious way that he was "lost in the Times," when he wanted to be let alone. I don't mean advertised for as lost, of course, though he might have been, for I have seen him lose his head frequently; indeed I have been almost forced to the conclusion more than once that the Times had a good deal to do with your father's mental confusion; it told such awful lies sometimes, and then a month or two afterwards would flatly contradict them all by telling the truth—at least it was probably the truth since it was the opposite of the lies; but it's of no use talking, I always find that. What were you saying, child?"

"Well, mother, I was going to say," answered Ruth, with a sigh, "that I must just have patience and be content to wait."

"Now you talk like the dear, good, sensible little thing that you are," said Mrs Dotropy, rising; "run, put on your hat and I'll walk with you by the sea, or go visit the fisher-folk if you like—or the Miss Seawards."

In this amiable frame of mind the mother and daughter set off to the shore.

Ruth's patience was indeed tried more severely than she had anticipated, for, whatever the search was in which Captain Bream had engaged, it compelled him to remain in town much longer than he had intended.

Meanwhile the Evening Star returned to port, and David Bright, with Billy, Joe, and the rest of the crew, went to enjoy themselves in their various ways during their brief holiday.

Mrs Bright chanced to be spending the afternoon with Mrs Joe Davidson and her wonderful "babby" when the skipper and mate walked in upon them. There were two little shrieks of joy; then the two wives were enfolded, and for a few seconds lost to view, in the stupendous embrace of the two fishermen, while the babby was, for the moment, absolutely forgotten! But she took care not to be forgotten long. On recovering from her first surprise she gave utterance to a howl worthy of a seaman's daughter. Joe immediately seized her in his arms, and half smothered her in a fond embrace, to which, apparently, she did not object.

Meanwhile little Billy stood looking on approvingly, with his hands in his pockets and his booted legs wide apart.

"I wonder when somebody's a-goin' to pay some sort of attention to me," he said after a minute or two.

"Why, Billy, I didn't see ye," cried Mrs Joe, holding out her hand; "how are ye, puss in boots?"

"If it was any other female but yourself, Maggie, as said that, I'd scorn to notice you," returned Billy, half indignant.

"My darling boy!" cried Mrs Bright, turning to her son and enfolding him in her arms.

"Ah! that's the way to do it," responded Billy, submitting to the embrace. "You're the old ooman as knows how to give a feller a good hearty squeeze. But don't come it too strong, mother, else you'll put me all out o' shape. See, daddy's a-goin' to show his-self off."

This last remark had reference to a small bundle which David Bright was hastily untying.

"See here, Nell," he said, with a strange mixture of eagerness and modesty, "I've joined 'em at last old girl. Look at that."

He unrolled a M.D.S.F. flag, which he had purchased from the skipper of the mission smack.

"An' I've signed the pledge too, lass."

"Oh! David," she exclaimed, grasping her husband's right hand in both of hers. But her heart was too full for more.

"Yes, Nell, I've had grace given me to hoist the Lord's colours in the Short Blue, an' it was your little book as done it. I'd ha' bin lost by now, if it hadn't bin for the blessed Word of God."

Again Nell essayed to speak, but the words refused to come. She laid her head on her husband's shoulder and wept for joy.

We have said that David Bright was not by nature given to the melting mood, but his eyes grew dim and his voice faltered at this point and it is not improbable that there would have been a regular break-down, if Joe's blessed babby had not suddenly come to the rescue in the nick of time with one of her unexpected howls. As temporary neglect was the cause of her complaint it was of course easily cured. When quiet had been restored Mrs Bright turned to her son—"Now, Billy, my boy, I must send you off immediately."

"But what if I won't go off—like a bad sky-rocket?" said the boy with a doubtful expression on his face.

"But you'll have to go—and you'll be willing enough, too, when I tell you that it's to see Miss Ruth Dotropy you are going."

"What!—the angel?"

"Yes, she's here just now, and wants to see you very much, and made me promise to send you to her the moment you came home. So, off you go! She lives with her mother in the old place, you know."

"All right, I know. Farewell, mother."

In a few minutes Billy was out of sight and hearing—which last implies a considerable distance, for Billy's whistle was peculiarly loud and shrill. He fortunately had not to undergo the operation of being "cleaned" for this visit, having already subjected himself to that process just before getting into port. The only portions of costume which he might have changed with propriety on reaching shore were his long boots, but he was so fond of these that he meant to stick to them, he said, through thick and thin, and had cleaned them up for the occasion.

At the moment he turned into the street where his friends and admirers dwelt, Ruth chanced to be at the window, while the Miss Seawards, then on a visit to her mother, were seated in the room.

"Oh! the darling!" exclaimed Ruth, with something almost like a little shriek of delight.

"Which darling—you've got so many?" asked her mother.

"Oh! Billy Bright, the sweet innocent—look at him; quick!"

Thus adjured the sisters ran laughing to the window, but the stately mother sat still.

"D'you mean the boy with the boots on?" asked Jessie, who was short-sighted.

"Yes, yes, that's him!"

"If you had said the boots with the boy in them, Jessie," observed Kate, "you would have been nearer the mark!"

In a few minutes, Billy, fully alive to his importance in the ladies' eyes, sat gravely in the midst of them answering rapid questions.

"You've not had tea, Billy, I hope," said Ruth, rising and ringing the bell.

"No, miss, I haven't, an' if I had, I'm always game for two teas."

Soon Billy was engaged with bread, butter, cakes, and jam, besides other luxuries, some of which he had never even dreamed of before.

"What an excellent appetite you have!" said Jessie Seaward, scarcely able to restrain her admiration.

"Yes, ma'am," said Billy, accepting another bun with much satisfaction, "we usually does pretty well in the Short Blue in that way, though we don't have sich grub as this to tickle our gums with. You see, we has a lot o' fresh air out on the North Sea, an' it's pretty strong air too— specially when it blows 'ard. W'y, I've seed it blow that 'ard that it was fit to tear the masts out of us; an' once it throw'd us right over on our beam-ends."

"On what ends, boy?" asked Mrs Dotropy, who was beginning to feel interested in the self-sufficient little fisherman.

"Our beam-ends, ma'am. The beams as lie across under the deck, so that w'en we gits upon their ends, you know, we're pretty well flat on the water."

"How dreadful!" exclaimed Jessie; "but when that happens how can you walk the deck?"

"We can't walk the deck, ma'am. We has to scramble along the best way we can, holdin' on by hands and teeth and eyelids. Thank 'ee, miss, but I really do think I'd better not try to eat any more. I feels chock-full already, an' it might be dangerous. There's severe laws now against overloadin', you know."

"No such laws in this house, Billy," said Ruth, with a laugh. "But now, if you have quite done, I should like to put a few questions to you."

"Fire away, then, Miss," said the boy, looking exceedingly grave and wise.

"Well, Billy," began Ruth, with an eager look, "I want to know something about your dear mother."

She hesitated at this point as if uncertain how to begin, and the boy sought to encourage her with—"Wery good, Miss, I knows all about her. What d'ee want to ax me?"

"I want to ask," said Ruth, slowly, "if you know what your mother's name was before she was married?"

Ruth did not as the reader knows, require to ask this question, but she put it as a sort of feeler to ascertain how far Billy might be inclined to assist her.

"Well, now, that is a stumper!" exclaimed the boy, smiting his little thigh. "I didn't know as she had a name afore she was married. Leastwise I never thought of it or heerd on it, not havin' bin acquainted with her at that time."

With a short laugh Ruth said, "Well, never mind; but perhaps you can tell me, Billy, if your mother ever had a brother connected with the sea—a sailor, I mean."

"Stumped again!" exclaimed the boy; "who'd have thought I was so ignorant about my own mother? If she ever had sich a brother, he must have bin drownded, for I never heerd tell of 'im."

"Then you never heard either your father or mother mention any other name than Bright—I mean in connection with yourselves?" said Ruth in a disappointed tone.

"Never, Miss, as I can reck'lect on. I would willin'ly say yes, to please you, but I'd raither not tell no lies."

"That's right my good boy," said Mrs Dotropy, with a stately but approving nod, "for you know where all liars go to."

"Yes, ma'am, an' I knows where liars don't go to," returned Billy, looking up with pious resignation, whereat the Miss Seawards and Ruth burst into a laugh.

It must not be supposed that Billy meant to be profane, but he had taken a dislike to Mrs Dotropy, and did not choose to be patronised by her.

As poor Ruth found that it was useless to pursue her investigations in this direction further, she changed the subject to the North Sea fishery, with the details of which her little friend was of course quite conversant. Then she proposed to accompany Billy home.

"I want to make the acquaintance of your father," she said.

"Ah! he's a true blue now, he is," said Billy.

"Was your father not always a true blue?" asked Ruth, as they went along the street together.

"Well, it ain't right for me to say ought agin my father—but—he's true blue now, anyhow."

And Ruth found that the reformed drunkard was indeed "true blue," and very glad to see her; nevertheless she obtained no information from him on the subject she was so anxious about—not because he was uncommunicative, but because Ruth, being very timid, had not courage to open her lips upon it.

The shades of evening were beginning to descend when she rose to leave. Both father and son offered to escort her home, but she declined the offer with many thanks, and went off alone.



CHAPTER TWENTY.

DETAILS TWO ROBBERIES AND AN AWFUL SITUATION.

The attainment of Felicity is said to be the aim of all mankind. In order to this end, men in all ages have voluntarily submitted themselves to prolonged infelicity. They have toiled in daily pain and sorrow throughout a long life to attain at last, if possible, to the coveted condition. Some have pursued it in eager intensity, dancing and singing as they went. Others have rushed after it in mad determination, cursing and grumbling as they ran. Many have sought it in rapt contemplation of the Sublime and Beautiful. Thousands have grubbed and grovelled for it in the gratification or the drowning of the senses, while not a few have sought and found it in simple, loving submission to their Maker's will, as made known by Conscience and Revelation.

Of all the varied methods, John Gunter, the fisherman, preferred the grub-and-grovelling method, and the favourite scene of his grovelling was a low grog-shop in one of the lower parts of Yarmouth.

It must be said, at this point, that Gunter was not considered by his mates as a regular out-and-out fisherman. He had never served his apprenticeship, but, being a powerful and sufficiently active seaman, was tolerated among them.

It is said that adversity makes strange bed-fellows. It is not less true that strong drink makes strange companions. Gunter's shipmates having had more than enough of him on the sea were only too glad to get clear of him when on land. He therefore found himself obliged to look out for new companionships, for it is certain that man yearns after sympathy of some sort, and is not, under ordinary circumstances, content to be alone.

The new friends he sought were not difficult to find. In one of the darkest corners of the public-house referred to he found them—an accidental, group—consisting of an ex-clerk, an ex-parson, and a burglar, not "ex" as yet! They had met for the first time, yet, though widely separated as regards their training in life, they had found the sympathetic level of drink in that dingy corner. Of course, it need hardly be said that the first two had swung far out of their proper orbits before coming into harmonious contact with the last. Of course, also, no one of the three desired that his antecedents should be known. There was not much chance, indeed, that the former occupations of the clerk or the parson would be guessed at, for every scrap of respectability had long ago been washed out of them by drink, and their greasy coats, battered hats, dirty and ragged linen, were, if possible, lower in the scale of disreputability than the rough garments of the burglar.

The subject of their conversation was suitable to all ages and countries, to all kinds and conditions of men, for it was politics! A fine, healthy, flexible subject, so utterly incomprehensible to fuddled brains that it could be distended, contracted, inflated, elongated, and twisted to suit any circumstances or states of mind. And such grand scope too, for difference, or agreement of opinion.

Oh! it was pitiful to see the idiotic expressions of these fallen men as they sat bound together by a mutual thirst which each abhorred, yet loved, and which none could shake off. And there was something outrageously absurd too—yes, it is of no use attempting to shirk the fact—something intolerably funny in some of the gestures and tones, with which they discussed the affairs of the nation.

"Hail fellow well met," was the generous tendency of Gunter's soul when ashore. Accosting the three in gruff off-hand tones with some such sentiment, he sat down beside them.

"Same to you, pal," said the burglar, with a sinister glance at the new-comer from under his heavy brows.

"How do? ol' salt!" exclaimed the clerk, who was by far the most tipsy of the three. "Come 'ere. We'll make you r'free—umpire—to shettle zish d'shpute. Queshn is, whether it's the dooty of the poor to help the rish—no, zhat's not it. W-w'ether it's dooty of rish to help the poor—what's it—by sharin' all they have with 'em or—"

"That's not the question at all," cried Gunter, gruffly—"the question is, what'll you have to drink!"

"Bravo!" exclaimed the parson, "that is the question!"

"You're a trump!" said the burglar.

"Well," exclaimed the clerk, with a tremendous assumption of winking-dignity, "ishn't zhat zactly what I was goin' to shay, if you'd on'y listen. 'What'll you 'ave to drink!' jus' so. Now, if you want to argue it out properly, you'll—"

He was checked and almost floored by a tremendous though facetious slap on the back from Gunter, who said that they wouldn't argue it out; that they would drink it out first and argue it out afterwards.

In pursuance of this plan he called the landlord, and, ordering spirits and water, treated the assembled company all round—including a few bloated and wretched women, some of whom carried children in their arms.

Whatever of the ludicrous might have struck an observer of the scene, while listening to the above conversation, it would have been all put to flight by the sight of these poor women, and perchance by the thought that they had been brought up to that life; had never known better, and would never have a chance of knowing better, unless some exceptional rays of heavenly light, should penetrate the dark region in which they lived. Praise be to God! such rays do visit such haunts at times, and brands are often plucked from the fire, but with these we have nothing to do at present. Our object just now is to trace the course of John Gunter.

You may be sure that one who spent his money so freely, and at the same time drank heavily, was not likely to escape the special attention of his new friend, the burglar. That worthy, besides being an expert in the heavier branches of his art, was not unacquainted with its lighter work. He watched the fisherman narrowly, observed in which pocket he kept his money, waited until he was sufficiently drunk for his purpose, and then picked his pockets at an engrossing moment, when the clerk was unfolding a perfect scheme of national reform to the parson, who, with eyes shut, and supposed to be listening intently, was in reality fast asleep.

His object accomplished, the burglar said he would go out, and have a look at the weather, which he did, and having quietly hidden his spoils he returned to report the weather "all right," and to make quite sure that he had left nothing whatever in any of Gunter's pockets. Having satisfied himself on this point he was about to retire to take a final look at the weather when Gunter said—"Hold on, mate; 'ave another glass."

He felt in his pocket for the wherewith to pay for the drink, and missed his money. He was by no means as drunk as he appeared to be, and at once suspected his comrade.

"You've stole my blunt!" he shouted, without a moment's hesitation.

"You're a liar," returned the burglar, promptly. Gunter was fierce by nature. He made no rejoinder, but struck a blow at the other which would have felled him had it taken effect. The burglar, however, was a pugilist. He evaded the blow, and returned it with such force that the fisherman staggered, but recovered himself, and grappled with his adversary.

In a moment all was uproar and confusion; benches were upset, spittoons kicked about, and pipes smashed, as the two powerful men swayed about, and tried fiercely to strangle each other. The women rushed screaming from the place; the landlord and his assistants interfered, but it was not until the police were called in that the combatants were separated. Then there occurred a violent scene of explanation, allegation, recrimination, and retort, during which the guardians of the peace attempted to throw oil on the troubled waters, for it is always their aim, we believe, to quiet down drunken uproars when possible rather than to take up the rioters.

As the burglar, with an injured, innocent look, denied the charge made against him, and turned all his pockets inside out in proof of his veracity, Gunter was fain to content himself with the supposition that he had lost his money in some incomprehensible manner.

In a very sulky mood he flung out of the public-house and sauntered away. He knew not where to go, for he had no friends in Yarmouth—at least none who would have welcomed him—and he had not wherewith to pay for a bed, even in the poorest lodging.

As he walked along, conscience began to smite him, but he was in no mood to listen to conscience. He silenced it, and at the same time called himself, with an oath, a big fool. There is no question that he was right, yet he would have denied the fact and fought any one else who should have ventured so to address him.

The evening was beginning to grow dark as he turned down one of the narrow and lonely rows.

Now, it so happened that this was one of the rows through which Ruth Dotropy had to pass on her way home.

Ruth was not naturally timid, but when she suddenly beheld a half-drunken man coming towards her, and observed that no one else was near, something like a flutter of anxiety agitated her breast. At the same moment something like a sledge-hammer blow smote the concave side of John Gunter's bosom.

"She's got more than she needs," he growled between his teeth, "an' I've got nothin'!"

As his conscience had been silenced this was a sufficient argument for John.

"I'll thank you for a shillin', Miss," he said, confronting the now frightened girl after a hasty glance round.

"Oh! yes, yes—willingly," gasped poor Ruth, fumbling in her pocket for her purse. The purse, however, chanced to have been left at home. "Oh, how provoking! I have not my purse with me, but if these few pence will—"

"Never mind the pence, Miss," said Gunter,—accepting the pence; however, as he spoke—"that nice little watch will do jist as well."

He snatched the watch which hung at Ruth's waist-belt, snapped the slender guard that held it, and made off.

When sufficiently out of danger of pursuit, he paused under a lamp to examine his prize. To his intense disgust he found that the little watch, instead of being a gold one, as he had expected, was only a silver one, of comparatively little value.

"Well, your first haul in this line ain't worth much," he grumbled. "Hows'ever, I've got coppers enough for a night's lodgin' an' grub."

Saying which he pocketed the watch, and went on his way.

Meanwhile Ruth, having given vent to a sob of relief when the man left her, ran towards home as fast as she could, never pausing till she reached the Miss Seawards' door, which chanced to be a little nearer than her own. Against this she plunged with wonderful violence for one so gentle and tender, and then hammered it with her knuckles in a way that would have done credit to a lightweight prize-fighter.

The door was opened hastily by Liffie Lee, who, being a much lighter weight than her assailant, went down before her rush.

"Lawk! Miss Ruth," she exclaimed, on recovering her feet, "w'at's a-'appened?"

But she asked the question of the empty air, for Ruth was already half sobbing, half laughing on the sofa, with a highly agitated sister on either side trying to calm her.

"Oh! what a little donkey I am," she exclaimed, flinging off her bonnet and attempting to laugh.

"What has happened?" gasped Jessie.

"Do tell us, dear," cried Kate.

"I—I've been robbed, by a—dreadful man—so awfully gruff, a sailor I think, and—oh!" Ruth became suddenly much calmer. "It did not occur to me till this moment—it is the watch—papa's little silver watch that Captain Bream brought him as a sort of curiosity from abroad long ago. Oh! I am so sorry! It was such a favourite with dear papa, and he told me to take such care of it when he gave it to me, for there was a romantic little history connected with it."

"What was it, dear?" asked Jessie, glad to find that the sudden diversion of her thoughts to the lost watch had done more to calm Ruth than all their demonstrative comfort.

Ruth at once proceeded to relate the story of the watch, but we will not inflict it on the reader, as it has no particular bearing on our tale. It had something to do, however, with detaining Ruth far later than she had intended to remain, so that she jumped up hastily at last, saying she must really go home.

"Are you sure the robber was a sailor?" asked Kate; "sailors are such dear nice men that I can hardly believe it."

"I'm almost quite sure," returned Ruth; "at all events he was dressed like one—and, oh! he was so gruff!"

From this point Ruth diverged into further and more minute details of the robbery, over which the three gloated with a species of fascination which is more frequently associated with ghost stories than true tales. Indeed we may say that four gloated over it, for Liffie Lee, unable to restrain her curiosity, put her head in at the door—at first with the more or less honest intention of asking if "hany think was wanted," and afterwards let her head remain from sheer inability to withdraw it.

At one point in the thrilling narrative she became intensely excited, and when Ruth tried in sepulchral tones to imitate John Gunter's gruff voice, she exclaimed, "Oh! lawks!" in such a gasp that the three ladies leaped up with three shrieks like three conscience-smitten kittens caught in a guilty act! Liffie was rebuked, but from pity, or perhaps sympathy, was allowed to remain to hear the end.

When that point was reached, it was found to be so late that the streets were almost deserted, and the particular part in which their lodging stood was dreadfully silent.

"How am I ever to get home?" asked Ruth.

"It is not more than twenty doors off," said Kate, "and Liffie will go with you."

"Lawks, ma'am," said Liffie, "what could the likes o' me do if we was attacked? An' then—I should 'ave to return alone!"

"That is true," said the tender-hearted Jessie; "what is to be done? Our landlady goes to bed early. It would never do to rouse her—and then, she may perhaps be as great a coward as we are. Oh! if there was only a man in the house. Even a boy would do."

"Ah! I jist think 'e would," said Liffie. "If little Billy was 'ere, I wouldn't ax for no man."

"I'll tell you what," said Kate with a bright look of decision, "we'll all go together. Get on your bonnet, Jessie."

There was no resisting Kate when once she had made up her mind. She put on her own bonnet, and her sister quickly returned ready, "with a heart," as Byron says, "for any fate?"

"Now don't speak, any of you," whispered Kate. "If we are attacked, let us give a united shriek. That will raise some one to our aid."

"I should think it would, ma'am. It would a'most raise the dead," said Liffie, who also prepared herself for the ordeal.

Dark and deserted streets at late hours, with dangerous characters known to be abroad, have terrors to some small extent, even for the averagely brave; what must they have, then, for those tender ones of the weaker sex whose spirits are gentle, perhaps timid, and whose nerves have been highly strung by much converse on subjects relating to violence?

The first shock experienced by our quartette was caused by the door. From some inscrutable impulse Liffie Lee had locked it after Ruth had rushed in.

"Open it gently," whispered Jessie, for the party had now got to the condition of feeling very much as if they were themselves burglars, engaged in some unholy enterprise, and feared to arouse sleepers. But they need not have feared, for their landlady was one of the "seven sleepers" of Yarmouth.

Liffie exerted her little strength with caution, but the lock was stiff; it would not move. She screwed up her mouth, and put-to more strength; still it would not move. Screwing up her eyebrows as well as her mouth, she tried again. It would not budge. She even screwed up her nose in a stupendous effort, but all in vain. If there had been no need for caution, the thing would have been easy, but Jessie kept whispering, "Softly, Liffie, softly!" and Ruth echoed "Softly!" At last Liffie screwed herself up entirely, body and soul, in one supreme effort; she agonised with the key. It yielded, and the bolt flew back with a crack like a pistol-shot.

"Oh!" burst in four different keys—not door-keys—from the party—under their breath however.

"Open," whispered Jessie.

Liffie obeyed, and when the half-opened door revealed intense darkness outside, a feeling of horror caused their very flesh to creep.

"How I wish I hadn't stayed! I'll never do it again!" whispered poor Ruth in the tones of a child about to be punished.

"What's that!" exclaimed Jessie, with a start that caused Ruth almost to shriek.

"Cats!" said Liffie Lee.

"Impossible!" said Kate.

But it was not impossible, for there, in a corner not far off, were dimly seen two intensely black objects, with backs and tails arranged on the moorish-arch principle, and a species of low thunder issuing from them, suggestive of dynamite in the stomach.

Relieved to find it was nothing worse, the party emerged into the street. The cats were too much enraged and engaged with each other to observe them. They, like the ladies, were evidently cowards, for they continued to threaten without attacking.

Liffie was left on guard with strict injunctions to stand inside, hold tight to the door-handle, let in the returning sisters, and then slam the door in the face of all the world beside.

A run was now made for the Dotropy residence. We could not call it a rush, for the three ladies were too light and elegant in form to proceed in such a manner. They tripped it—if we may say so—on light fantastic toe, though with something of unseemly haste. Ruth being young and active reached the door first, and, as before, went with a rebounding bang against it. The anxious Mrs Dotropy had been for some time on the watch. She opened the door.

"Ruth!"

"Mamma!"

"Your daughter!" exclaimed the Miss Seawards in needless explanation, as they pushed her in, and then, turning round, fled homeward with so much noise that the attention of a night watchman was naturally attracted. The sisters heard his approaching foot-falls. They put on, in sporting language, a spurt. Just as the door was reached the two cats, becoming suddenly brave, filled the night-air with yells as of infants in agony. An irrepressible shriek burst from the sisters as they tripped over each other into the passage, and the faithful Liffie slammed the door in the face of the discomfited policeman.

It was a crucial test of friendship, and the Miss Seawards came to the conclusion that night, before retiring to rest, that nothing on earth would ever induce them to do it again.



CHAPTER TWENTY ONE.

A HOPEFUL CLUB DISCOVERED.

When Captain Bream, as before mentioned, was obliged to hurry off to London, and forsake the Miss Seawards, as well as his theological studies, he hastened to that portion of the city where merchants and brokers, and money-lenders, and men of the law do love to congregate.

Turning down Cheapside the captain sought for one of the many labyrinths of narrow streets and lanes that blush unseen in that busy part of the Great Hive.

"Only a penny, sir, only a penny."

The speaker was an ill-conditioned man, and the object offered for sale was a climbing monkey of easily deranged mechanism.

"Do you suppose," said the captain, who, being full of anxious thought was for the moment irascible, "do you suppose that I am a baby?"

"Oh! dear no, sir. From appearances I should say you've bin weaned some little time—only a penny, sir. A nice little gift for the missus, sir, if you ain't got no child'n."

"Can you direct me," said the captain with a bland look—for his tempers were short-lived—"to Brockley Court?"

"First to the left, sir, second to the right, straight on an' ask again—only a penny, sir, climbs like all alive, sir."

Dropping a penny into the man's hand with a hope that it might help the monkeys to climb, Captain Bream turned into the labyrinth, and soon after found himself in a dark little room which was surrounded by piles of japanned tin boxes, and littered with bundles of documents, betokening the daily haunt of a man-of-law.

The lawyer himself—a bland man with a rugged head, a Roman nose and a sharp eye—sat on a hard-bottomed chair in front of a square desk. Why should business men, by the way, subject themselves to voluntary martyrdom by using polished seats of hard-wood? Is it with a view to doing penance, for the sins of the class to which they belong?

"Have you found her, Mr Saker?" asked Captain Bream, eagerly, on entering.

"No, not got quite so far as that yet—pray sit down; but we have reason to believe that we have got a clue—a slight one, indeed, but then, the information we have to go upon in our profession is frequently very slight—very slight indeed."

"True, too true," assented the captain. "I sometimes wonder how, with so little to work on at times, you ever begin to go about an investigation."

The lawyer smiled modestly in acknowledgment of the implied compliment.

"We do, indeed, proceed on our investigations occasionally with exceeding little information to go upon, but then, my dear sir, investigation may be said to be a branch of our profession, for which we are in a manner specially trained. Let me see, now."

He took up a paper, and, opening it, began to read with a running commentary:—

"Fair hair, slightly grey; delicate features, complexion rather pale, brown eyes, gentle manners."

"That's her—that's her!" from the captain.

"Age apparently a little over thirty. You said, I think, that your sister was—"

"Yes, yes," interrupted the captain in some excitement, "she was considerably younger than me, poor girl!"

"Let me, however, caution you, my dear sir, not to be too sanguine," said the man-of-law, looking over his spectacles at his client; "you have no idea how deceptive descriptions are. People are so prone to receive them according to their desires rather than according to fact."

"Well, but," returned the captain, with some asperity, "you tell me that this woman has fair hair slightly grey, delicate features, pale complexion, brown eyes, and gentle manners, all of which are facts!"

"True, my dear sir, but they are facts applicable to many women," replied the solicitor. "Still, I confess I have some hope that we have hit upon the right scent at last. If you could only have given us the name of her husband, our difficulty would have been comparatively slight. I suppose you have no means of hunting that up now. No distant relative or—"

"No, none whatever. All my relations are dead. She lived with an old aunt at the time, who died soon after the poor girl's foolish elopement, leaving no reference to the matter behind her. It is now fifteen years since then. I was away on a long voyage at the time. On my return, the old lady, as I have said, was dead, and her neighbours knew nothing except that my sister was reported to have run away with a seafaring man. Some who had seen him about the place said he seemed to be beneath her in station but none knew his name."

"Is it not strange," asked the solicitor, "that she has never in all these years made inquiries about you at the mercantile house which employed you?"

"Well, not so strange as it would seem, for my sister's memory for names was a bad one. She used constantly to forget the name of the ship I commanded, and, as far as I can remember, did not trouble herself about the owners. I have no doubt she must have made many efforts to discover me—unless she was ashamed of having made a low match. At all events," added the captain, with a weary sigh, "I have never ceased to make inquiries about her, although I have not until now made the attempt through a lawyer. But where is this person you have heard of to be found?"

"On board of an emigrant ship," said the solicitor.

"Where bound for?" demanded the captain in peat surprise.

"For Australia, and she sails the day after to-morrow, I am told."

"Her name!" cried the captain, starting up.

"Calm yourself, my dear sir. I have made all needful arrangements for your going off to-morrow. It is too late to-day. Sit down and let me explain; and, above all, bear in mind that this may turn out to be a wrong scent after all. Of course you may surmise that we lawyers obtain our information from many and various sources. The source whence the information concerning your matter has come is peculiar, namely, a lay-missionary who is going to visit the ship to-morrow—having some friends on board. Happening to meet the man the other day, I mentioned your matter to him. He is a very sharp-witted man, and one whose accuracy of observation I should trust implicitly, even if his own interests were involved. Well, he said that on board of the steam-ship Talisman, now lying off Gravesend, he saw that very day a woman among the steerage emigrants who answered to my description exactly, and added that he had heard her spoken of as the wife of a somewhat dissipated man, who had all the appearance of a seafaring person, named Richards. Of course I attach no importance to the name, as you say you never knew it, but his being a sailor-like man, and the fact that he was probably beneath his wife in station, coupled with the correct description of the wife, while it does not justify our being too sanguine, raises our hopes, you see—"

"I see, I see—yes. I beg that you will give me the agent's name and address," cried the captain, whose hopes, despite the guarded and cautious statements of the solicitor, had been raised to the highest point.

"Here is his name, with the part of the river where you are to meet him," said the calm man of law, handing his client a slip of paper; "but let me, my dear sir, impress on you the advisability of not allowing yourself to become too sanguine. Disappointments are invariably more severe in cases where expectations have been too high; and I fear that you may be already building too trustfully upon the very slender foundation supplied by this information."

Admitting the force of this truism, and putting the slip of paper in his purse, Captain Bream bade his solicitor good-bye, with many protestations of undying gratitude, and left the room with the highest possible hopes of success.



CHAPTER TWENTY TWO.

IN THE MISSION BOAT ON THE THAMES—THE DAMPING OF THE BODY CANNOT DAMP THE ARDENT SPIRIT.

Next morning Captain Bream accompanied the lay-missionary to Gravesend, where they took a boat and put off to the emigrant ship.

Great was the captain's satisfaction to find that his companion had been a sailor, and could talk to him—in nautical language too—about seafaring matters and distant climes.

"It is a good work in which you are engaged," he said; "are you going to preach to 'em?"

"No, only to distribute Testaments, tracts, and good books—though I may preach if I get the chance. My work lies chiefly among emigrants and boat and barge men, but I also do a good deal among regular sailors."

"Ah! That's the work that I'm fond of," said the captain, with enthusiasm. "Of course I don't mean to say that the soul of a sailor is of more value than that of any other man, but I lean to sailors naturally, havin' been among 'em the greater part of my life. I've done a little myself in the way of preachin' to 'em."

"Have you?" exclaimed the missionary, with a pleased look.

And from this point the two men went off into a confidential and animated talk about their varied experiences on the sea of spiritual work, on which they had both been launched, while the boatman—an old and evidently sympathetic man—pulled them to the vessel which lay at some distance from the place of embarkation.

While the two friends—for such they had become by that time—were chatting thus with each other, a little accident was in store for Captain Bream, which not only disarranged his plans, but afterwards considerably affected his career.

Having reached the age of sixty years, our captain was not quite as active in body as he had once been. He was, however, quite as active in heart and mind, besides having much of the fire of youth still burning in him. Hence he was apt at times to forget his body in the impulsive buoyancy of his spirit. An instance of this forgetfulness occurred that day. The missionary paid a passing visit to a vessel on their way to the emigrant ship. Having run alongside, Captain Bream put his foot on the first step of the ladder, with intent to mount the vessel's side.

"Have a care, sir," said the old boatman, who was assisting him with some anxiety.

It may be that the captain's too youthful spirit spurned assistance, or that he had miscalculated the powers of his too ancient body, for at the moment his foot slipped while as yet his hold of the man-ropes was not secure, and he fell with a lion-like roar that might have shamed the stoutest king of the African forests.

It was not a cry of fear, still less was it a shout for help. It seemed rather like an effervescing roar of indignant surprise.

The boatman held up his arms to catch the unfortunate man, but his strength availed nothing against such a weight. He was hurled into the bottom of the boat for his pains, and the captain went into the water feet first as deep as the waist. Here, however, the disaster was checked, for his strong arms caught the boat and held on.

The missionary, meanwhile, sprang forward and laid hold of him, while his man rose with wonderful agility and lent his aid.

"Heave—ahoy!" cried the missionary, grasping a waist-band.

"Yo, heave, ho!" shouted the boatman, seizing a leg. Another moment and the captain was safe in the bottom of the boat, which by that time was floating quietly down the Thames!

Great was the regret expressed by the missionary at this unfortunate event, and loud was the laughter with which it was treated by the captain himself, on being re-seated in the stern sheets.

"We must go ashore and get a change of dry clothes for you, sir."

"Not a bit of it," cried the captain. "Row back to the ship; I'll mount that ladder yet. If I didn't I'd keep dreaming of my discomfiture for a twelve-month to come." They ran alongside the vessel a second time, and went up the side in safety.

But, arrived on deck, the skipper, who happened to be a hospitable man and friendly to the missionary, insisted on having Captain Bream down into his cabin.

"Now you'll put on a suit of my clothes," he said, "till your own are dry."

The captain would not hear of it.

"Just let me wring my own out," he said, "and I'll be all right."

"Have a glass of wine then, or brandy?"

"Impossible; thank'ee, I'm an abstainer."

"But you need it to prevent catching cold, you know. Take it as physic."

"Physic!" exclaimed the captain. "I never took physic in my life, and I won't begin wi' the nasty stuff now. Thank'ee all the same."

"Some coffee, then? I've got it all ready."

"Ay—that's better—if you're sure you've got it handy."

While the captain and the skipper were discussing the coffee, the wet garments were sent to the galley and partially dried. Meanwhile the missionary made the most of his opportunity among the men. By the time he had finished his visit, the captain's nether garments were partially dried, so they continued their voyage to the emigrant ship. When they reached her the poor captain's interest in other people's affairs had begun to fail, for his anxiety about his long-lost sister increased, as the probability of finding her at last became greater.



CHAPTER TWENTY THREE.

HOW CAPTAIN BREAM FARED IN HIS SEARCH, AND WHAT CAME OF IT.

The finding of an individual in a large emigrant ship may not inaptly be compared to the finding of a needle in a haystack. Foreseeing the difficulty, the missionary asked Captain Bream how he proposed to set about it.

"You say that you do not know the married name of your sister?" he said, as they drew near to the towering sides of the great vessel.

"No; I do not."

"And you have not seen her for many years?"

"Not for many years."

"Nevertheless, you are quite sure that you will recognise her when you do see her?"

"Ay, as sure as I am that I'd know my own face in a lookin'-glass, for she had points about her that I'm quite sure time could never alter."

"You are involved in a great difficulty, I fear," continued his friend, "for, in the first place, the time at your disposal is not long; you cannot ask for the number of her berth, not having her name, and there is little probability of your being able to see every individual in a vessel like this while they keep moving about on deck and below."

The captain admitted that the difficulties were great and his countenance grew longer, for, being as we have said a remarkably sympathetic man, the emotions of his heart were quickly telegraphed to his features.

"It strikes me," continued the missionary, in a comforting tone, "that your best chance of success will be to enter my service for the occasion, and go about with me distributing New Testaments and tracts. You will thus, as it were, have a reason for going actively about looking into people's faces, and even into their berths. Excuse me for asking—what do you think of doing if you find your sister, for the vessel starts in a few hours?"

"Oh, I'll get her—and—and her husband to give up the voyage and return ashore with me. I'm well enough off to make it worth their while."