ff would let him, he began to whistle.

"But it arn't all about it," cried the captain; "and so you'll find.
You arn't paid no passage, and I arn't going to have no liberties took
with my ship. Here, where's that Malay chap?"

"I told you where he was, didn't I?" snarled Jack Penny. "Are you deaf?
In the cabin, locked in."

"What's he doing locked in my cabin?" roared the captain. "I say, are
you skipper here, or am I? What's he doing in my cabin locked in?"

"Rubbing his sore head, I s'pose," drawled Jack Penny. "I hit him as
hard as I could with one o' them fence rails."

"Fence rails!" cried the captain, who looked astounded at the big thin
boy's coolness, and then glanced in the direction he pointed beneath the
bulwarks. "Fence rails! What do you mean--one of them capstan bars?"

"I don't know what you call 'em," said Jack. "I give him a regular
wunner on the head."

"What for, you dog?"

"Here, don't you call me a dog or there'll be a row," cried Jack, rising
erect and standing rather shakily about five feet eleven, looking like a
big boy stretched to the bursting point and then made fast. "He was
going to kill the black fellow with his knife after knocking him down.
I wasn't going to stand by and see him do that, was I?"

"Well, I s'pose not," said the captain, who looked puzzled. "Where is
the black fellow? Here, where's Jimmy?"

"Down that square hole there, that wooden well-place," said Jack,
pointing to the forecastle hatch. "He slipped down there when the
yaller chap hit him."

"Look here--" said the captain as I made for the hatch to look after
Jimmy. "But stop a minute, let's have the black up."

Two of the men went below and dragged up poor Jimmy, who was quite
stunned, and bleeding freely from a wound on the head.

"Well, that's some proof of what you say, my fine fellow," continued the
captain, as the doctor knelt down to examine poor Jimmy's head and I
fetched some water to bathe his face. "What did you do next?"

"Next? Let me see," drawled Jack Penny; "what did I do next? Oh! I
know. That chap was running away with the ship, and I took hold of that
wheel thing and turned her round, so as to come back to you when you
kept waving your cap."

"Hah! yes. Well, what then?"

"Oh, the thing wanted oiling or greasing; it wouldn't go properly. It
got stuck fast, and the ship wouldn't move; and then the storm came. I
wish you wouldn't bother so."

"Well, I _am_ blessed,