plied Mr. Stoute, warmly, but
good-naturedly.

"You are aware that I asked for the gig before I started for the ship?"
continued Mr. Hamblin, impressively.

"I am; and I was also aware that the first cutter had been appropriated
to the use of the instructors."

"I demanded the gig. It was refused. What did that mean?"

"It meant just what the captain said--that the principal required him to
furnish the first cutter for our use."

"That is not what it meant," persisted Mr. Hamblin. "The crew of the
first cutter had been instructed to tip me into the river. When I called
for the gig, it deranged the plan. I am only sorry that I did not refuse
to take the cutter, and insist upon having the gig; but I do not wish to
make trouble."

"But why did you ask for the gig?"

"Because I saw Morgan, who, I knew, belonged in the cutter, laughing
when the rope fell on my head. He would as lief drown me as not."

"I think you misjudge the boys."

"I am surprised that one who has been a teacher as long as you have does
not understand boys any better," replied Mr. Hamblin, coldly. "I am
satisfied that Kendall is at the bottom of all this mischief."

"I am very sure he is not," said Mr. Stoute, decidedly.

"The crew of the cutter had been prepared for their work."

It was surprising that two men who had been among boys so long took such
opposite views of them; but the difference of opinion was more in the
men than in the boys.

These events were the staple of conversation on deck and in the steerage
among the crew; and some of the better boys heard certain indefinite
remarks about "the first step" and "the second step," used by "our
fellows;" but no real friend of law and order discovered anything which
threw any new light upon the two misfortunes that had overtaken the
senior professor, though there was a suspicion that these were the first
and second steps hinted at by the doubtful ones.

CHAPTER X.

WHO WAS CAPTAIN OF THE JOSEPHINE?

Mr. Hamblin, as before intimated, did not sleep well on the night in
question. The burden of being called to the state department, and even
to the royal palaces of Belgium, was very trying to his nerves. When he
slept, it was only to dream of the great statesman and revolutionary
leader of the Low Countries, in the act of taking him by the hand or of
presenting him to his majesty Leopold, "Roi de Belge."

He prepared himself with great care, in his reflections, for the
stupendo