chime of the little bell had been the roar of a cannon.

"The Albion sails at one!" cried the mate; and without so much as
stopping to look for his oilskin cap, with bandaged brow and
bareheaded, Bolton rushed forth into the street, and, dizzy as he
felt, staggered on towards the pier from which the vessel was to sail.

It was not to be expected that the sailor's course should be a very
straight one, or that with all his haste he should manage to make good
speed. The streets of New York seemed to be more full of traffic than
usual, and twice the mate narrowly escaped being knocked down again by
some vehicle rapidly driven along the road. At last, breathless and
faint, and scarcely able to keep his feet, poor Bolton arrived at the
wharf to which his ship had been moored but an hour before. But the
Albion was there no longer--the vessel had started without the
mate--he could see her white sails in the distance; she was already
on her way back to Old England, and she had left him behind!

This was a greater shock to poor Bolton than the blow from the falling
ladder had been. He stood for several minutes gazing after the ship
with a look of despair, then slowly the sailor returned to the house
of the Vales.

"Nothing more unlucky could possibly have happened," muttered the mate
to himself. "Here's a pretty scrape that I shall get into with my
employers; the mate of their vessel absent just at the time when he
ought to have been at his post! Then I've nothing with me--nothing,
save the clothes that I stand in! All my luggage is now on the waves,
and a precious long time it will be before I shall see it again. But I
don't care so much for the luggage; what I can't bear to think of is
my wife and my children looking out eagerly for the arrival of the
good ship Albion, and then, when she reaches port, finding that no Tom
Bolton is in her! I wish that that stupid basket had been at the
bottom of the sea before ever I set eyes on it!"

Pale, haggard, and looking--as he was--greatly troubled, Bolton
entered the house of the Vales, which he so lately had quitted. The
family were just finishing their dinner; and not a little astonished
were they to see one whom they had believed to be on the wide sea.

"Here I am again, like a bad half-penny," said the sailor; and sitting
down wearily on a chair which Katie placed for him directly, Bolton
gave a short account of what he called the most unlucky mischance that
had ever happene