me that I had been
accused, court martialled, and--although I had pleaded not guilty--found
guilty and dismissed the Service.

Now, it is necessary for me to say here just a word or two in
self-defence; for there is no reason whatever why the reader should be
allowed to believe me guilty, although, for certain reasons of my own, I
permitted the officers who tried me to think so.

I am an orphan, both my parents having died within a few months of each
other when I was less than three years old, leaving me to the mercy of
the world. My nearest relation was Aunt Betsy Carr, my father's only
sister, and at my mother's death she and Uncle Bob adopted me as their
own, although they had a baby boy of their own, at that time nearly two
years old--the Cousin Bob who was responsible for my present trouble.
They took me not only into their home but also into their hearts; they
made not the slightest difference in their treatment of Bob and me; I
was as much a son to them as he was; and the result was that I soon grew
to love them both as much as though they had been my own parents.

At first, as children, Bob and I got on splendidly together; but later
on, when we were respectively about seven and eight years of age, my
cousin gradually developed a feeling of jealousy that at length became
inordinate--although he was very careful to conceal the fact from his
parents; so that when, in my second year at Dartmouth, the matter of
sending him there also was mooted, I was exceedingly sorry, although I
of course gladly promised to help him to the utmost, in the event of his
being entered. And when in due time he turned up there, I redeemed my
promise, so far as Bob would let me; and it cost me a good deal to do
so, for he soon became exceedingly unpopular. But he managed to scrape
through his final, and, some six months before the opening of this
story, was appointed to the _Terrible_--to my great chagrin, for I had a
presentiment that his coming meant trouble for me.

And now the trouble had come, with a vengeance. It was really Bob, and
not I, who had committed the crime of which I was accused; and clever as
the young rascal had been in diverting suspicion from himself to me, I
could have cleared myself, had I so chosen, but only by fixing the guilt
upon him. And that I could not bring myself to do, after all the
kindness which I--had received at the hands of my aunt and uncle; for
they not only idolised the lad but believed in