rfectly calm
manner, but with a trace of triumph in his voice, he declared:

"This is the fellow who did the job!"

CHAPTER IX.

IN IRONS.

"What?" cried the engineer, in astonishment.

"How do you know?" asked the engineer's assistant, incredulously.

"That's it--how do you know?" demanded the engineer. "You said you did
not see the person who attacked you."

"I did not."

"Yet you say this is the man."

"Yes."

"How do you know?"

"I know him."

"You do?"

"Yes."

"You have seen him before?"

"I should say so, on several occasions. He is one of my bitterest
enemies. This is not the first time he has tried to kill or injure me.
He has made the attempt many times before. He is the only person here
who would do such a thing."

"If this is true," said the engineer, grimly, "he shall pay dearly for
his work!"

The assistant nodded.

"What have you to say, Hackett?" demanded the engineer.

"I say it's a lie!" growled the fellow. "I never saw this chap before he
came into the engine-room. He doesn't know me, and I don't know him."

"You hear what Hackett has to say," said the engineer, turning to Frank.

"I hear what this fellow has to say, but his name is not Hackett."

"Is not?"

"No, no more than mine is Hackett."

"Then what is his name?"

"His name is Harris!" asserted Merry, "and he is a gambler and a crook.
I'll guarantee that he has not been long on the 'Eagle.'"

"No; we took him on in New York scarcely two hours before we sailed. We
needed a man, and he applied for any kind of a job. Found he had worked
round machinery, and we took him as wiper and general assistant."

"It was not so many weeks ago that he attacked me at New Haven," said
Frank. "He failed to do me harm. When he found I was going abroad he
declared he would go along on the same steamer. At the time he must have
thought I was going by one of the regular liners; but it is plain he
followed me up pretty close and found I was going over this way. As
there is no second-class passage on this boat, he decided he could not
travel in the same class with me without being discovered, and he
resolved to go as one of the crew, if he could get on that way. That's
how he happens to be here."

"If what you say is true, it will go pretty hard with Mr. Harris. We'll
have him ironed and--"

A cry of rage broke from the lips of the accused.

"There is no proof!" he snarled. "No one can swear I attacked this
fellow and