t where you have put it,
sir?"

"No, Dan. What about that dark thing that we saw crawling through the
clearing the other night, and which neither of us was sure about?"

The little sailor answered by bending his knees and then bringing his
right hand down with a tremendous slap upon his right thigh.

"That's it, sir. You've got it. Nigger crawling up from outside come
pickling and stealing. See that, messmate?"

"What d'you mean?"

"Well," said Dan, "it must have been some black beggar from outside come
creeping up at night to see what he could smug."

"Yes, Dan," cried Mark, eagerly.

"Well, I'm blessed!" cried Buck. "And--and--and--" He looked first at
one lad and then at the other, as he rummaged first with one hand and
then with the other in his pockets, and then with both together, before
turning savagely upon Dan and roaring out, "Here, who's got my knife?"

"Well, not me, messmate. Here's mine;" and laying hold of the short
lanyard about his neck he hauled out his big jack knife from inside the
band of his trousers. "You don't call that yourn, do you?"

"Na-ay!" growled Buck. "Wouldn't own a thing like that. Mine was made
of the best bit of stuff that ever came out of Sheffield."

"Only a Brummagem handle, though," said Dan.

"Never mind about the handle," growled Buck. "I wouldn't have lost that
knife for anything--almost as soon lost my head. You know what a good
one it was, Mr Mark, sir. Why, you might have shaved yourself with it,
sir, if you had waited till you was grown up."

"Here, none of your chaff, Buck. You can't joke easily. I know I have
got no beard, but when it does come I hope it won't come carroty like
somebody's."

"Carroty, sir? Not it! Last time I see my mother it had growed while I
had been away three years, and she said it made her feel proud, for it
was real hauburn."

"Well, never mind about your beard, messmate," said Dan, in a deep,
gruff voice. "Do you feel sure as you have lost the knife?"

"I feel sure that it's gone in the night, along of Mr Mark's rifle."

"What, out hunting together?" said Mark, laughing.

"Well, good companions," said Dean. "One shoots the game, and the other
skins and cuts it up."

"I don't quite see what you mean, gentlemen," said Dan; "but it seems to
me, Mr Mark, that you and me see the beggar that comes hanging about
and that sneaked your gun and his knife."

"Yes," said Mark, "that's it; and I feel sure that if we com