s bound to go back again. He found,
however, that, having once entered, he could not leave the ship without
the captain's leave until she returned home and was paid off. There was
now no help for it. Captain Stanhope was evidently a kind man, and
would, should a favourable opportunity occur, allow him to go home.
Still, Owen saw that the present was no time to talk about that. He at
once set to work on his new duties, and he soon found, from the approval
expressed by the captain, that he performed them satisfactorily.

Mr Scoones, who had not left the ship, wishing to go round in her to
Batavia, looked very much astonished when he saw Owen in an officer's
dress on the quarter-deck. He had himself, however, so completely lost
credit with the officers from his conduct in the action that few of them
spoke to him. He was glad therefore for some one to speak to. Going up
to Owen, he addressed him with a patronising air--

"Glad to see that your talents have been discovered, my young friend,"
he said; "had I felt justified, I should have recommended you to the
captain from the first, but as you thought fit to associate with the
ship's boys and men, I could not do so with any propriety."

"I do not know with whom else I could have associated, Mr Scoones,"
answered Owen, laughing. "You certainly showed no inclination for my
society, and unhappily all the other officers were lost. Had it not
been for the ship's boy you speak of, and the only man who remained
sober, we none of us should have escaped."

"Well, well," answered Mr Scoones, "let bygones be bygones. If I get
home first I will report your good fortune--that you are as strong and
hearty as your friends could wish you to be. You will not, I suppose,
send home an account of the shipwreck, for you and I may differ in our
statements. Mine of course is the one which will be accredited, as no
one at home will fancy that you can know anything about the matter."

"I should not wish to say anything to incriminate you," answered Owen;
"but the lives of a great number of our fellow-creatures are at stake
when an officer loses his senses, and I therefore hope that you will
either give up drinking or quit the sea."

"Then you intend to accuse me of casting away the ship through
drunkenness?" exclaimed Mr Scoones, looking as though he could eat Owen
up.

"Whatever I say or do will be from a sense of duty," answered Owen.

A part of this conversation had been overh