colour was deepening as he listened, regarded her with
a lurid eye.

"And you believe it all," said Rosa, turning to him with a pitying smile
as Bassett concluded his tale. "Why don't he go on; he ain't finished
yet."

"Wot!" said Mr. Walters with energy.

"He ain't told you about making love to me yet," said Rosa.

"I didn't," said the youth. "I shouldn't think of doing such a thing. It
was all a mistake of yours."

Miss Jelks uttered a cruel laugh. "Ask him whether he followed me like
a pet dog," she said turning to the astonished boatswain. "Ask him if he
didn't say he loved the ground my feet trod on. Ask him if he wanted to
take me to Marsham Fair and cried because I wouldn't go."

"Eh?" gasped the boatswain, staring at the bewildered Bassett

"Ask him if he didn't go down on his knees to me in Pringle's Lane one
day--a muddy day--and ask me to be his," continued the unscrupulous
Rosa. "Ask him if he didn't say I was throwing myself away on a
wooden-headed boatswain with bandy legs."

"Bandy wot?" ejaculated the choking Mr. Walters, as he bestowed an
involuntary glower at the limbs in question.

"I can assure you I never said so," said Bassett; earnestly. "I never
noticed before that they were bandy. And I never--"

An enormous fist held just beneath his nose stopped him in mad career.

[Illustration: An enormous fist held just beneath his nose 316]

"If you was only three foot taller and six or seven stone 'eavier," said
the palpitating boatswain, "I should know wot to do with you.

"I assure you--" began Bassett.

"If you say another word," declared Mr. Walters, in grating accents,
"I'll take you by the scruff of your little neck and drop you in the
river. And if you tell any more lies about my young woman to a living
soul I'll tear you limb from limb, and box your ears arter-wards."

With a warning shake of the head at the gasping Bassett he turned to
Miss Jelks, but that injured lady, with her head at an alarming angle,
was already moving away. Even when he reached her side she seemed
unaware of his existence, and it was not until the afternoon was well
advanced that she deigned to take the slightest notice of his abject
apologies.

"It's being at sea and away from you that does it," he said humbly.

"And a nasty jealous temper," added Miss Jelks.

"I'm going to try for a shore-berth," said her admirer. "I spoke to Mr.
Vyner--the young one--about it yesterday, and he's going to see wot he