Tonkin, or you would never dream of--"

"Drunk am I?" he exclaimed savagely, wheeling suddenly round upon me.
"I'll soon show you whether I'm drunk or not," and he raised the rope's-
end with the manifest intention of striking me across the face with it.
But before the blow could fall there was a sudden rush of feet; the
sniggering loafers who hemmed us in were knocked right and left like so
many ninepins, and, with a cry of "Take that, you dirty blackguard, as a
lesson not to lift your filthy paws again against a king's officer,"
Simpson, our carpenter's mate, an immensely strong fellow, dashed in and
caught the boatswain a terrific blow square on the chin, felling him to
the deck, where he lay senseless, and bleeding profusely at the mouth.

"Put that man in irons!" bellowed a furious voice behind me; and,
turning round, I beheld the skipper glaring like an infuriated animal
past me at the carpenter's mate, who was standing with clenched fists
across the prostrate body of the boatswain.

"For what reason, pray, Captain Williams?" demanded I indignantly. "I
do not know how long you have been here, for I did not hear you
approach, but unless you have but this instant come upon the scene you
must be fully aware that it was your boatswain who started this
disgraceful brawl. His behaviour was absolutely brutal, and--"

I got no further; for while I was still speaking the villain suddenly
seized me round the waist, and, being much more powerful than myself,
pinned my arms close to my sides. "Here," he exclaimed to one of his
own people standing by, "just lash this young bantam's arms behind him,
and seize him to the rail, while I attend to the other." And before I
well knew where I was I found myself securely trussed up, and saw
Simpson, Martin, and another of my men, fighting like lions at bay,
finally overborne by numbers and beaten senseless to the deck.

"You will be very sorry for this outrage before you are many days older,
Captain Williams," I said as the fellow presently came and planted
himself square in front of me.

"Shall I, indeed?" he sneered, thrusting his hands deep in his trousers
pockets, and balancing himself on the heaving deck with his legs wide
apart. "What makes you think so?"

"Because I will report your conduct to the captain of the first man-o'-
war that we fall in with on the coast, and you will be called upon to
give an account of yourself and your behaviour."

"And supposing that w