ight alongside of me on the upper deck, springing up on to the hammock
nettings in his excitement to see the finish, unthinking of the breach
of discipline he was committing. "Go it, ye cripples. Sure, Tom, the
little wun'll win--what d'ye call him?"

"He's a thrasher," I replied, jumping up, too, on the top of the
nettings. "A sort of shark, I think. Father has one stuffed at home,
stowed away somewhere, that looks like that chap. If so, he's a fox-
shark."

"A fox-shark, begorrah!" repeated Mick, with a grin. "Faith, Tom, he's
goin' fur thet ould whale theer ez if he wor not ownly a fox, sure, but
a pack of hounds as will, alannah!"

"Hi, there, you boys," roared out a voice at this juncture, which we had
little difficulty in recognising as belonging to Lieutenant Robinson,
who was again officer of the watch this afternoon, his turn of duty
having once more come round. "Get off that netting at once and go
below, both of you. Master-at-arms, take those boys' names down and put
them in the report, and bring them up on the deck after `divisions' to-
morrow!"

The `Jaunty,' who was standing below the break of the poop, looked up at
the scowling lieutenant, saluting him.

"Very good, sir," said he, with another touch of his hat, in recognition
of the authority of the speaker. "I will see to it, sir."

But, a `Deus ex machina,' or `God from the bathing-machine,' as our old
captain of the _Saint Vincent_ would have said in his Latin lingo, just
then intervened on our behalf.

Mick Donovan and I were sneaking down the main hatch, like a pair of
whipped dogs with their tails between their legs--though I must say we
were more chagrined at losing the best part of the fight going on in the
water, which was rapidly approaching a climax, than dismayed at having
incurred the displeasure of the lieutenant--when, if you please, we
heard somebody shout out something behind us, and the master-at-arms,
who had followed in our wake, called out to us to stop.

"Belay there, you boys," he shouted down the hatchway. "Ye're to return
on deck!"

In obedience to this order, we ascended the ladder-way again, retracing
our steps at an even slower pace than we had gone down at; for we both
expected, the same thought having flashed across our minds when the
`Jaunty' hailed us, that Lieutenant Robinson had, on more mature
consideration, fancied he had let us off too lightly for the heinous
offence we had committed, and had order