tle work
as possible themselves, the prisoners in the forecastle were brought up
on deck, and ordered, first to rouse out the sail, and then to go aloft
and bend it. This the unfortunate passengers, aided and directed by the
captain, at length accomplished, though it was at the imminent risk of
their lives, the violent motion of the ship momentarily threatening to
send them--unaccustomed as they were to such work--whirling off the yard
into the sea. The sail being bent, it was loosed and set, close-reefed;
after which the disabled ship not only steered more easily, but also
became more steady; all further danger, too, of being pooped was at an
end.

The spare spars were next cast adrift, and preparations made for getting
new topmasts on end as soon as the weather should moderate sufficiently;
and thus passed that eventful day.

Walford was soon found to be so exceedingly timid when aloft, that he
was not only of no use there, he was absolutely a clog and hindrance to
the efforts of the others; he was accordingly relegated to the
ignominious post of cook's mate, in which an abundance of the dirtiest
work was carefully provided for him.

On the second day after his assumption of his new duties, this
unfortunate individual, while engaged in the task of getting up coals
from the fore-peak, was unlucky enough to capsize the lamp which he was
using, and so set the ship on fire. Instead of giving the alarm
instantly, as he ought to have done, he rushed on deck with the
intention of getting some buckets of water, and endeavouring to
extinguish the fire unaided. No sooner, however, did he make his
appearance than he was hustled peremptorily off by the cook upon another
errand; and when he returned, a quarter of an hour later, the forecastle
was all ablaze, and the smoke just beginning to curl up through the
scuttle.

Then indeed he shouted "Fire!" with all his might, and at the terrible
cry all hands rushed forward, to find the alarm only too true.

In the first mad hurry and confusion, no one seemed to think of
inquiring how the fire had originated; and Walford was beginning to
congratulate himself that, whatever happened, his complicity would not
be suspected, when Talbot, happening to run up against him, stopped
abruptly, and exclaimed--

"Ha! you lubber, I saw _you_ creeping up and down the forecastle ladder
just now, as gingerly as a cat walking upon hot bricks--you ought to
know something about this job--and by