aniel," said Scudamore, who could not speak condescendingly to any
one, even from the official point of view, because he felt that every
honest man was his equal, "are you here of your own accord, as one of
the crew of this schooner?"

Dan Tugwell had a hazy sense of being put upon an untrue balance. Not
by this kind gentleman's words, but through his own proceedings. In his
honest mind he longed to say: "I fear I have been bamboozled. I
have cast my lot in with these fellows through passion, and in hasty
ignorance. How I should like to go with you, and fight the French,
instead of getting mixed up with a lot of things I can't make out!"

But his equally honest heart said to him: "You have been well treated.
You are well paid. You shipped of your own accord. You have no right to
peach, even if you had anything to peach of; and all you have seen is
some queer trading. None but a sneak would turn against his shipmates
and his ship, when overhauled by the Royal Navy."

Betwixt the two voices, Dan said nothing, but looked at the lieutenant
with that gaze which the receiver takes to mean doubt of his meaning,
while the doubt more often is--what to do with it.

"Are you here of your own accord? Do you belong to this schooner of your
own accord? Are you one of this crew, of your own free-will?"

Scudamore rang the changes on his simple question, as he had often been
obliged to do in the Grammar-school at Stonnington, with the slow-witted
boys, who could not, or would not, know the top from the bottom of a
sign-post. "Do you eat with your eyes?" he had asked them sometimes; and
they had put their thumbs into their mouths to enquire.

"S'pose I am," said Dan at last, assuming stupidity, to cover
hesitation; "yes, sir, I come aboard of my own free-will."

"Very well. Then I am glad to find you comfortable. I shall see your
father next week, perhaps. Shall I give him any message for you?"

"No, sir! For God's sake, don't let him know a word about where you
have seen me. I came away all of a heap, and I don't want one of them to
bother about me."

"As you wish, Dan. I shall not say a word about you, until you return
with your earnings. But if you found the fishing business dull, surely
you might have come to us, Dan. Any volunteers here for His Majesty's
service?" Scudamore raised his voice, with the usual question. "Good
pay, good victuals, fine promotion, and prize-money, with the glory of
fighting for their native count