ther would find the little chaps tumbling out of their hammocks in
the dead of night, and clambering upon deck with knuckles rubbing the
sleep out of their eyes. All the work usually performed by seamen,
with the sole exception of cooking, was done by these little chaps,
and under the eagle eye of Warington it was well and truly done. Not
that they showed any disposition to shirk. On the contrary, a keener
crew was never shipped, but there was something in their knowledge
that the skipper's word was law, that there was no arguing about
orders, which must have given a certain polish to their work.
Warington, of course, was no petty tyrant, lording it over young
brothers, and swaggering in the undisputed character of his sway. Like
the rest he is a humourist, and when a gale was not blowing or the
yacht was not contesting a race, he was as full of merriment and good
spirits as the rest. His opinion of Ste at this time was a high one.
He was always, says he, "most dependable." Receiving his orders, the
future defender of Mafeking would stand as stiff and silent as a
rock, showing scarce a sign that he understood them, but the orders
were always carried out to the letter, and in a thoroughly finished
and seamanlike manner. Ste was always the tallest of his brothers, and
at this time he was singularly lithe and wiry. A tall slight boy with
quite fair hair, a brown skin, and sharp brown eyes, he possessed
extraordinary powers of endurance, and could always outlast the rest
of the brothers. He was quick to perceive the reason of an order, and
always quick to carry it out; he was just as brisk in organising
cruises on his own account, when, with the leave of Skipper Warington,
he would take command of the yacht's dinghy and go off on fishing
expeditions with Baden and Frank. It was a dinghy that moved quickly
with a sail, but in all their cruises up creeks and round about the
hulks of Portsmouth Harbour they never came to grief, and always
returned with a good catch of bass and mullet.

Danger did come to the yacht itself, however, on more than one
occasion, and but for the courage and skill of Warington, the world
might never have heard of B.-P. and the other brothers. Once, in the
_Koh-i-noor_ (a 10-tonner with about eighteen tons displacement),
which was the second yacht designed by Warington, the boys were
cruising about the south coast, when, towards evening, just off
Torquay, a gale got up, and the sea began to get uncomm