. I trust, if it be so, that
when he gets into port he will report me keel-hauled?"

"Keel-hauled?"

"Yes, I mean dead. It is a thousand times better to pass for a dead
man than a deserter."

"The wisest course he could pursue, it appears to me, would be to hold
his tongue--probably you will not be missed."

"Ah! you think that her Majesty's blue jackets can disappear in that
way, like musk-rats? But no such thing. When the captain in command at
the station hails on board, every man and boy of the crew, from the
powder-monkey to the first-lieutenant, are mustered in pipe-clay on
the quarter-deck, and there, with the ship's commission in his hand,
every one must report himself as he calls over the names.

"Then the captain will tell the simple truth."

"Well, you see, truth has nothing at all to do with the rules of the
service, the questions printed in the orderly-book only will be asked,
and he may not have an opportunity of stating the facts of the case;
besides, discipline on board a ship in commission could not be
maintained if irregularities could be patched up by a few words from
the captain. When it is found that I had been left on shore, the
questions will be, 'Was the _Nelson_ in want of repairs?' 'No.' 'Did
she require water?' 'No.' 'Provisions?' 'No.' 'Then Willis has
deserted?' 'Yes.' And his condemnation will follow as a matter of
course."

"In that case, the Captain would be more to blame than you are."

"So he would, and it is for that reason I hope he will be able to show
by the log that I was seized with cholera, tied up in a sack, and duly
thrown overboard with a four-pound shot for ballast."

"I cannot conceive," said Becker, "that the discipline of any service
can be so cruelly unreasonable as you would have us believe."

"No, perhaps you think that just before the anchor is heaved, and the
ship about to start on a long voyage, the cabin boys are asked whether
they have the colic--that lubbers, who wish to back out have only to
say the word, and they are free--that the pilot may go a-hunting if he
likes, and that the officers may stay on shore and amuse themselves in
defiance of the rules of the service? In that case the navy would be
rather jolly, but not much worth."

When Willis was once fairly started there was no stopping him.

"Dead," he continued; "that is to say, without a berth, pay, or even a
name, nothing! My wife will have the right to marry again, my little
Susan will have