ld flick, when you finds yourself free!"

And, then, they raised one of their old sailor choruses with much
spirit--

"Oh, he'll never come back no more, boys,
He'll never come back no more;
For he's sailed away to Botany Bay,
And 'll never come back no more!"

While they were in the middle of this--Jim Chowder singing the solo of
the shanty, and the others joining in with full lung power in the
refrain--who should appear from the opposite direction to that in which
the mate had disappeared on his strange steed, but, Captain Snaggs!

The skipper looked very strange and excited.

"Hillo, my jokers!" he exclaimed as soon as he got near enough to hail
the men, "whaar's Mister Flinders? I wants him at oncest."

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN.

"SKELETON VALLEY."

"This wer a reg'ler sockdollager!" said Jim Chowder, when narrating the
circumstances to us; for on this unexpected enquiry after the mate
coming so suddenly after the men had treated him in so ignominious a
fashion, they were "knocked all aback!"

So, for the moment, no one answered the skipper's question.

Of course, this did not tend to allay his excitement. "Can't nary a one
o' ye speak?" he cried angrily. "Whaar's the fust-mate--ye ain't made
away with the coon, hev ye?"

"He's out fur a ride, cap," at last said the wag of the party, whereat
there was another outburst of laughter. "Mr Flinders wer a bit out o'
sorts an' hez gone up theer fur a hairin'."

"Thaar!" echoed the skipper, looking to where the man pointed with his
hand. "Whaar?"

"Up in the hills," replied the other grinning hugely at Captain Snaggs'
puzzled expression. "He's gone fur a ride a-tortoise-back."

"Ye're a durned fule!" shouted the skipper, thinking he was `taking a
rise' out of him. "Don't ye try on bamboozlin' me. What d'ye mean by
his goin' a-ridin', an' sich nonsense?"

"He vas shbeak ze drooth, cap'en," put in Jan Steenbock, who was still
wiping the blood from his face as he got up to answer him. "I vas zee
Mistaire Vlinders zail avays oop dere on ze back of von beeg toordle
joost now."

"By thunder, ye're all makin' game of me, I guess!" yelled the skipper,
seeing that Jan was grinning like the rest, "I s'pose ye've been hevin'
a muss ag'en. Now, I ain't a-goin' to stand no more bunkum. What hev
ye done with Mr Flinders, I axes fur the last time?"

"I vas not do nuzzin," replied Jan quietly, continuing to wipe his face.
"Ze mate vas shtrike me, but I