y were runaways or mutineers?"

"I'm sure of it," replied `Number One' significantly. "There are a lot
of gold coins and dollars scattered about in the bottom of the boat,
besides an open bundle containing a collection of watches and other
jewellery; and, from the greasy pack of cards lying alongside these, I
fancy they must have been playing for the plunder and quarrelled about
the division of it!"

"Then the lightning came and settled the thing for good and all," said
the commodore solemnly, sinking his voice to an impressive tone. "It
was the judgment of God!"

The doctor, after a very brief stay in the boat, came up the side again
and made his report to our chief.

"All of them must have been killed instanter by the one flash of
lightning, which seems to have gone all over the boat, zigzagging in a
most curious manner," said he. "The electric fluid, sir, has actually
fused the blade of one of the cutlasses, and melted down the dollars and
doubloons, which the poor devils must have been gambling with, all into
a solid mass in the bottom of the boat!"

"Indeed!"

"Yes, sir," affirmed the doctor, in answer to this exclamation from the
commodore. "But the lightning, sir, has done something more wonderful
than that, which I would not have believed unless I had seen it myself.
I pulled open the shirt of one of the dead men, and there, on his
breast, was a perfect photograph, as if done in Indian ink, of a ship in
full sail, like the one which nearly collided with us the other day and
afterwards foundered!"

"Pooh!" cried the commodore incredulously. "It is probably a tattoo
mark, the same as all sailors like to deface their bodies with."

"Oh no, sir," persisted Doctor Mopson. "It's a real photograph printed
by the flash of lightning. I've seen too many tattoo marks in my time
while examining fellows in the sick-bay not to recognise them. This is
plainly done by the electric fluid--you can see it for yourself, sir!"

"Thanks," said the commodore drily, walking to the other side of the
deck and putting his silk handkerchief to his face, a very unpleasant
whiff from the boat, which was still alongside, coming inboard. "I'll
take your word for it, doctor, as you say it is so. I wonder if those
fellows really belonged to that unfortunate ship?"

"Not unlikely, sir," said Mr Osborne, thinking the commodore, who had
soliloquised aloud, according to his habit, had addressed the question
to him. "The vessel