lads were the only passengers aboard of about
their age, they soon became as friendly as any other young animals would
have become, and everything went on balmily until a quarrel arose over a
game which they were playing on the lower deck. As General Keith had
told Gordon that he must be very discreet while on board and not get
into any trouble, the row might have ended in words had not the sympathy
of the sailors been with Gordon. This angered the other boy in the
dispute, and he called Gordon a liar. This, according to Gordon's code,
was a cause of war. He slapped Ferdy in the mouth, and the next second
they were at it hammer-and-tongs. So long as they were on their feet,
Ferdy, who knew something of boxing, had much the best of it and
punished Gordon severely, until the latter, diving into him, seized him.

In wrestling Ferdy was no match for him, for Gordon had wrestled with
every boy on the plantation, and after a short scuffle he lifted Ferdy
and flung him flat on his back on the deck, jarring the wind out of him.
Ferdy refused to make up and went off crying to his mother, who from
that time filled the ship with her abuse of Gordon.

The victory of the younger boy gave him great prestige among the
sailors, and Mike Doherty, the bully of the fore-castle, gave him boxing
lessons during all the rest of the voyage, teaching him the mystery of
the "side swing" and the "left-hand upper-cut," which Mike said was "as
good as a belaying-pin."

"With a good, smooth tongue for the girlls and a good upper-cut for thim
as treads on your toes, you are aall right," said Mr. Doherty; "you're
rigged for ivery braize. But, boy, remimber to be quick with both, and
don't forgit who taaught you."

Thus, it was that, while Gordon Keith was still a boy of about twelve or
thirteen, instead of being on the old plantation rimmed by the great
woods, where his life had hitherto been spent, except during the brief
period when he had been at Dr. Grammer's school, he found himself one
summer in a little watering-place on the shores of an English lake as
blue as a china plate, set amid ranges of high green hills, on which
nestled pretty white or brown villas surrounded by gardens and parks.

The water was a new element for Gordon. The home of the Keiths was in
the high country back from the great watercourses, and Gordon had never
had a pair of oars in his hands, nor did he know how to swim; but he
meant to learn. The sight of the boats row