ful smile, "but I'll 'ave
my 'arf-crown fust if you don't mind."

"But you said sixpence at the station," said the boy.

"_Two_ an' sixpence, captin," said the man, still smiling, "but I'm a
bit 'usky, an' p'raps you didn't hear the two 'arf a crown's the regler
price. We ain't allowed to do it under."

"Well, I won't tell anybody," said the boy.

"Give the man 'is 'arf-crown," said the waterman, with sudden heat;
"that's 'is price, and my fare's eighteen pence."

"All right," said the boy readily; "cheap too. I didn't know the price,
that's all. But I can't pay either of you till I get aboard. I've only
got sixpence. I'll tell the captain to give you the rest."

"Tell 'oo," demanded the light porter, with some violence.

"The captain," said the boy.

"Look 'ere, you give me that 'arf-crown," said the other, "else I'll
chuck your box overboard, an' you after it."

"Wait a minute, then," said the boy, darting away up the narrow alley
which led to the stairs, "I'll go and get change."

"'E's goin' to change 'arf a suvren, or p'raps a suvren," said the
waterman; "you'd better make it five bob, matey."

"Ah, an' you make yours more," said the light-porter cordially. "Well,
I'm---- Well of all the----"

"Get off that box," said the big policeman who had come back with the
boy. "Take your sixpence an' go. If I catch you down this way again----"

He finished the sentence by taking the fellow by the scruff of the neck
and giving him a violent push as he passed him.

"Waterman's fare is threepence," he said to the boy, as the man in the
boat, with an utterly expressionless face, took the chest from him.
"I'll stay here till he has put you aboard."

The boy took his seat, and the waterman, breathing hard, pulled out
towards the vessels in the tier. He looked at the boy and then at the
figure on the steps, and, apparently suppressing a strong inclination to
speak, spat violently over the side.

"Fine big chap, ain't he?" said the boy.

The waterman, affecting not to hear, looked over his shoulder, and
pulled strongly with his left towards a small schooner, from the deck of
which a couple of men were watching the small figure in the boat.

"That's the boy I was going to tell you about," said the skipper, "and
remember this 'ere ship's a pirate."

"It's got a lot o' pirates aboard of it," said the mate fiercely, as
he turned and regarded the crew, "a set o' lazy, loafing, idle,
worthless----"

"It's for the