pper, nearly choked in his effort to suppress a grin.

Joe Bronson enjoyed that supper. The food was rough but good, and the
smack of the salt air and the sea-fittings around him gave zest to his
appetite. The cabin was clean and snug, and, though not large, the
accommodations surprised him. Every bit of space was utilized. The table
swung to the centerboard-case on hinges, so that when not in use it
actually occupied no room at all. On either side and partly under the
deck were two bunks. The blankets were rolled back, and the boys sat on
the well-scrubbed bunk boards while they ate. A swinging sea-lamp of
brightly polished brass gave them light, which in the daytime could be
obtained through the four deadeyes, or small round panes of heavy glass
which were fitted into the walls of the cabin. On one side of the door
was the stove and wood-box, on the other the cupboard. The front end
of the cabin was ornamented with a couple of rifles and a shot-gun,
while exposed by the rolled-back blankets of French Pete's bunk was a
cartridge-lined belt carrying a brace of revolvers.

It all seemed like a dream to Joe. Countless times he had imagined scenes
somewhat similar to this; but here he was right in the midst of it, and
already it seemed as though he had known his two companions for years.
French Pete was smiling genially at him across the board. It really was a
villainous countenance, but to Joe it seemed only weather-beaten. 'Frisco
Kid was describing to him, between mouthfuls, the last sou'easter the
_Dazzler_ had weathered, and Joe experienced an increasing awe for this
boy who had lived so long upon the water and knew so much about it.

The captain, however, drank a glass of wine, and topped it off with a
second and a third, and then, a vicious flush lighting his swarthy face,
stretched out on top of his blankets, where he soon was snoring loudly.

"Better turn in and get a couple of hours' sleep," 'Frisco Kid said
kindly, pointing Joe's bunk out to him. "We 'll most likely be up the
rest of the night."

Joe obeyed, but he could not fall asleep so readily as the others. He
lay with his eyes wide open, watching the hands of the alarm-clock that
hung in the cabin, and thinking how quickly event had followed event in
the last twelve hours. Only that very morning he had been a school-boy,
and now he was a sailor, shipped on the _Dazzler_ and bound he knew not
whither. His fifteen years increased to twenty at the thought