from head to heel, and if ever Slap-Jack lost heart it was then. The water surged beneath him, and lifted his whole body, like a wave, though the surrounding surface was smooth as a mill-pond. One desperate kick, that shot him two fathoms at a stroke, and his passing foot grazed some slimy, scaly substance, while from the corner of his eye he caught a glimpse the moment after of the back-fin of a shark. Then he hailed in good earnest, swimming his wickedest the while, and ere the voracious sea-scourge, or its consort, could turn over for a leisurely snap at him, Slap-Jack was safe in the bight of a rope, and the anchor-watch, not a little astonished, were hauling their exhausted ship-*mate over the side.
"Come on board, sir!" exclaimed the new arrival, scrambling breathless to his feet, after tumbling head-foremost over the gunwale, and pulling with ludicrous courtesy at his wet hair. "Come on board, sir. Hands wanted immediate. Ax your honour's pardon. So blown I can hardly speak. First-class row among the niggers. Bobbery all over the island. Devil to pay, and no pitch hot!"
Captain George was on deck, which perhaps accounted for the rapidity of the foretop-man's rescue, and although justly affronted by so unceremonious a return on the part of a liberty-man who had out-stayed his leave, he saw at a glance that some great emergency was imminent, and prepared to meet it with habitual coolness.
"Silence, you fool!" said he, pointing to a negro amongst the crew. "Lend him a jacket, some of you. Come below at once to my cabin, and make your report. You can be punished afterwards."
Slap-Jack followed his commander nothing loth. The after-punishment, as being postponed for twenty-four hours at least, was a matter of no moment, but a visit to the Captain's cabin entailed, according to the etiquette of the service, a measure of grog, mixed on certain liberal principles, that from time immemorial have regulated the strength of that complimentary refreshment.
In all such interviews it is customary for the skipper to produce his spirit-case, a tumbler, and a jug of water. The visitor helps himself from the former, and esteems it only good breeding that he should charge his glass to the depth
