drop o' rum might be agreeable, but took care never to make his
remarks so pointed as to call for an answer. Just as the sun was rising
he got up slowly, cast loose the stays and halyards of mast and sail,
lifted the mast out of its place, and deliberately hove the whole affair
overboard, remarking in a quiet tone that, having served his purpose, he
didn't want mast or sail any longer. In the same deliberate way he
unshipped the rudder and cast it away. He followed this up by throwing
overboard one of the oars, and then taking the only remaining oar, he
sculled and steered the boat therewith gently.

Billy, who thought his companion must be either drunk or mad, could
contain himself no longer.

"I say, old fellow," he remarked, "you're comin' it pretty strong! Wot
on earth _are_ you up to, and where in all the world are 'ee goin' to?"

"Oh come, you know," answered Jones in a remonstrative tone, "I _may_ be
an easy-goin' chap, but I can't be expected to tell all my secrets
except to friends."

"Well, well," said Billy, with a sigh, "it's no use tryin' to hold out.
I'll be as friendly as I can; only. I tells you candid, I'll mizzle
whenever I gits ashore. I'm not agoin' to tell no end o' lies to please
you any longer, so I give 'ee fair warning," said Billy stoutly.

"All right, my lad," said the wily Jones, who felt that having subdued
the boy thus far, he would have little difficulty in subduing him still
further, in course of time, and by dint of judicious treatment; "I don't
want 'ee to tell lies on my account, an' I'll let you go free as soon as
ever we get ashore. So now, let's shake hands over it, and have a glass
o' grog and a bit o' breakfast."

Billy shook hands, and took a sip out of the case-bottle, by way of
clenching the reconciliation. The two then had breakfast together, and,
while this meal was in progress, Jones informed his little friend of the
nature of the "game" he was engaged in playing out.

"You must know, my lad," said Mr Jones, "that you and I have been
wrecked. We are the only survivors of the brig Skylark, which was run
down in a fog by a large three-masted screw steamer on the night of the
thirteenth--that's three nights ago, Billy. The Skylark sank
immediately, and every soul on board was lost except you and me, because
the steamer, as is too often the case in such accidents, passed on and
left us to our fate. You and I was saved by consequence of bein' smart
and gettin' i