akfast in the cabin. Gary and Rucker went
down, Duff taking the first mate's place.

This was the second mate's first voyage with Captain Gary, and he
furtively sympathized with Ralph, but such is the force of discipline
on shipboard that he dared not show his feelings openly.

"It's a burning shame," thought he, "to punish a land lubber of a boy
the first day he ever spent at sea. Sugar wouldn't melt in Gary's
mouth when I went to him for a job, but now the tune is changed. And
to cap all, nobody seems to know where we're bound, unless it may be
Rucker. The crew know nothing, except that we're provisioned for a
long voyage, with a lot of stuff locked up in the hold as no one has
seen yet."

He glanced up at the helpless boy, then shook his head.

"Hut tut! Are you sick of this cruise already, Jacob Duff? This will
never do. You're in for it, so make the most of your luck, even if it
turns out you do have a fiend for a skipper."

When Gary and his first officer returned, Duff went below. But as he
ate, his thoughts reverted so persistently to Ralph's predicament that
he grew impatient with himself. After finishing his meal he lay down
in his berth and tried to sleep. Some time had elapsed when he was
aroused by a sound of furious objurgation on deck.

He rose, took his cap and crept up the companionway. Captain Gary was
standing by the weather rail of the quarter deck, where with clenched
hands and violent gestures, he was pouring forth a flood of profane
vituperation such as Duff had seldom heard equaled.

Before him was Ralph, still so weak as to require the support which
Long Tom was roughly giving him, yet gazing on his infuriated commander
with a steady unflinching scorn.

"Tell me you won't, eh?" stormed the captain, his feminine air and
aspect completely lost in a mien of scowling ferocity. "By the
living--but what's the use of swearing! Down with him to the sweat
box, and if that don't tame him we'll try the paddle afterward.

"Captain Gary," interrupted Ralph undauntedly, "if I had known you
yesterday as I know you now, I'd have seen you dead before I'd a been
here today. I'm weak, I know; you may tie and starve me, but if you
ever have me beaten--make it a good job."

Gary seemed momentarily paralyzed at such independence, then out of
sheer amazement hissed forth sneeringly:

"Will your impudence tell me why?"

"Because I'll kill you!" exclaimed Ralph, with such concentrated energy