e
would run into port and send in a despatch detailing Hilary Leigh's
desertion; and each time that he so made up his mind, and had the
cutter's head laid in the required direction, his eye became so painful
that the cook had to supply hot water from the galley, and the worthy
officer went below to bathe the injured optic.

Each time as the inflammation was relieved the lieutenant unmade his
mind, and decided to wait a little longer, going on deck again to
superintend the repairs Joe Smith, the carpenter, familiarly known as
"Chips," was proceeding with in the damaged deck.

There was a great deal to do and the carpenter was doing that great deal
well, but at his own pace, for "Chips" was not a rapid man. If he had a
hole to make with gimlet or augur he did not dash at it and perhaps bore
the hole a quarter or half an inch out of place, but took his
measurements slowly and methodically, and no matter who or what was
waiting he went steadily on.

There was enough in the composition of "Chips" to make anyone believe
that he had descended from a family in the far-off antiquity who were
bears; for he was heavy and bearlike in all his actions, especially in
going up or coming down a ladder, and his caution was proverbial amongst
the crew.

So deliberately were the proceedings now going on that Lieutenant
Lipscombe grew hot every time he went on deck, and the hotter the
commander became the cooler grew "Chips."

The lieutenant stormed and bade him make haste.

"You are disgracefully slow, sir," he exclaimed.

"Chips" immediately found that his saw or chisel wanted sharpening, and
left off to touch up the teeth of the one with a file, and the edge of
the other on a stone well lubricated with oil.

The lieutenant grew more angry, and the carpenter looked at him in the
calmest possible way, till in despair, seeing that he was doing no good,
but only hindering progress, Lieutenant Lipscombe went aft to his cabin
and bathed his eye.

"Lookye here," said Billy Waters the day after Hilary's disappearance,
"I hope, my lads, I'm as straightforrard a chap as a man can be, and as
free from mut'nous idees; but what I want to know is this: why don't we
go ashore and have another sarch for our young orsifer?"

"That's just what I says," exclaimed Tom Tully.

"No, you don't, Thomas," cried the gunner sharply. "You did nothing but
grumble and growl all the blessed time we was ashore, and say as our
young orsifer had cut on so