breakfast was to be brought to him to afford this needed
opportunity, it was long deferred. Three hours, he estimated, had passed
thus. During this time he had seen Red Annie and her husband rowed to
the Marjorie. The Swedes in a long boat were busily occupied in bringing
fresh water in casks from the shore to the Sea Eagle, and on board the
latter the jollification was decidedly in progress as he could both see
and hear.

On board the Marjorie, all was quiet. He could occasionally hear the
murmur of voices, but nothing more. Looking just now toward the Sea
Eagle he saw that the combined crews of the two ships were manning the
long boat.

There was scarcely a man among them now who could be regarded as
moderately sober. The majority were immoderately intoxicated. They were
singing ribald songs and the recitative, between the melodies was
composed of oaths such as Jim had never heard. The men in the long boat
did not succeed in getting clear of the Sea Eagle without some violent
altercations, first with the Swedes and then among themselves. The
jovial songs were quickly abandoned in favor of yells and shouts and
threats, oars were freely and indiscriminately used, and there seemed to
be a breaking of heads all around.

"There seems to be a regular melee," thought Jim, as he stood by the
porthole, observing the lively scene. He watched the men leap from
thwart to thwart of the boat and make for one another like bulldogs. He
thought he knew exactly how the fight would end, and it did end
precisely as he anticipated.

More than a dozen men cannot carry on a naval engagement of that sort
for a long time without an accident of some kind, and no one had reason
to be surprised when an unsteady man, balancing himself on an unsteady
gunwhale, to strike at a particular "friend" with a heavy oar, failed
in his aim, and went headlong into the water; nor was it in any way
unnatural or contrary to the laws of gravitation that the bow of
the boat on being released of his weight, should jump up, thereby
interfering with the man who was balancing himself astern and sending
him overboard with equal dispatch.

Just at that moment, Jim was startled by a voice close beside him, for
he had had no intimation that anyone was about. Turning quickly, he
discovered that a small panel in his door had been slid aside and a
plate of food was pushed through and into his extended hands.

Needless to say, the food was welcome, but the method of