The captain shook his head, and made a sign to the boatswain to proceed.

"Well, if I must tell," cried out the man, Saull Ley by name, "the thief is Will Weatherhelm."

I almost fainted when I heard the accusation, and I am sure that I must have looked as guilty as if I had committed the theft.

A triumphant smile flitted across Iffley's features, and he pa.s.sed the knotted tails of his cat, as if mechanically, through his fingers, while he cast a glance at me which I too well understood. The captain turned towards me.

"What is this I hear?" he asked. "Do you acknowledge the theft, Weatherhelm?"

"No, sir; certainly not," I answered, with as firm a voice as I could command, though I felt conscious that it was faltering as I spoke.

"What proof have you that Weatherhelm committed the theft?" asked the captain of the culprit.

"Because two men, if not more, watched him, and knew that it was him,"

was the answer; and now the man spoke in a firmer voice than I had done, and I fancied looked more innocent.

"Produce your witnesses," said the captain.

The man hesitated for a minute, and his eye ranged with an uneasy glance along the lines of men drawn up on deck, as if anxiously scanning their countenances, for he must have felt that they knew him, and that he was not generally believed. At last his eyes rested on two who were standing together.

"Bill Sykes and d.i.c.k Todd saw him, sir; they know all about it. They'll tell you; they'll prove I am innocent."

The theft had been committed on the purser's stores. Some tobacco and sugar and some other things had been stolen. Now Saull Ley, the accused, had been seen coming out of the store-room on one occasion when the purser's clerk had left the keys in the door for a short time and gone away. The purser, on his return, had missed some tobacco and sugar, and that same evening a small quant.i.ty of both those articles had been found in Ley's possession.

"Stand out, Bill Sykes and d.i.c.k Todd, and let me hear what you know about this matter."

Bill Sykes was a landsman, and had soon shown that he was totally unfit for a sailor. d.i.c.k Todd had entered as a boy. He was not worth much, and had become a great chum of Sykes'. Still, from the little I had seen of them, I did not think that they would have been guilty of falsely accusing a shipmate. I had therefore little fear of what they could say against me.

I was, however, somewhat startled when they stepped forward, and Sykes, as the eldest, began in a clear way to state that he had seen a man, whom he took to be me, open the door of the purser's room with a key, and, after being absent for a minute or more, return and lock it. He at once knew this was wrong, so he watched what the man he took to be the thief would next do. He said that he met with Todd, and told him as a friend what he had observed. The thief crept along the deck, and the two then saw him go to his bag and deposit something which he took out of his pockets. Both the men acknowledged that they might be mistaken, but that they thought that it was me.

"What have you got to say to this, Weatherhelm?" asked the captain.

"You are accused by the mouths of two witnesses."

"The accusation is false, sir," I answered calmly. "I was not long ago at my bag, and I observed neither tobacco nor sugar in it. If you will send for it, you will find that I speak the truth."

"Very well. Mr Marvel, take a couple of hands with you, and bring up Weatherhelm's bag," said the captain, addressing the mate of the lower deck.

I felt very little anxiety during the time the officer was absent, for I was sure that nothing would be found among my things. He soon returned, bringing the bag. It was placed before the captain.

"Open it," said he. It was opened on deck in sight of all the officers and ship's company. What was my horror and dismay, to see drawn forth, wrapped up in a shirt, a large lump of tobacco and a paper containing several pounds of sugar! "Now what have you got to say?" asked the captain, turning to me.

"That I have not the slightest notion how those things came into my bag," was my prompt answer.

"That is the sort of reply people always give when they are found out,"

said the captain. "It will not serve your turn, I fear."

"I cannot help it, sir," I replied, with a feeling of desperation.

"Appearances are certainly against me, sir; I know not by whom those things were put into my bag. I did not put them in, and I did not know that they were there."

"You said that another man was a witness of this affair," said the captain, turning to Ley. "Who is he?"

Ley began to hum and haw and look uncomfortable. "I'd rather not say, sir," whined out Ley, "if it is not necessary."

"But it is necessary," thundered out the captain, evidently annoyed at the man's coolness and canting hypocrisy. "Who is he? or you get the four dozen awarded you."

I had watched all along the countenance of Iffley. I felt sure that a plot had been formed against me, and that he was its framer and instigator. I saw that he began to grow uneasy at this stage of the proceedings.

"Who is this other man?" repeated the captain.

Ley saw that he must speak out, or that he would still get the punishment he was so anxious to escape. "There he is; Charles Iffley is the man, sir, who, besides those two, saw Weatherhelm go to his bag and put the stolen things into it."

"How is this, Iffley? If you saw a man committing a robbery, it wag your duty to give notice of it, sir," exclaimed the captain, in an angry voice, turning towards him.

"I am very sorry, sir," replied Iffley. "I am aware of what I ought, strictly speaking, to have done, but I did not like to hurt the character of a shipmate. He always seemed a very respectable man, and I fully believed that I must have been mistaken. It is only now that the things are found in his bag that I can believe him guilty."

"You are ready to swear to this?" asked the captain.

"Quite ready, sir, certainly," replied Iffley calmly. "I add nothing and withhold nothing on the subject."

Even I was startled by what Iffley said, and the way he said it. I could not help supposing that he believed what he said.

"Have you anything more to say in your defence, Weatherhelm?" said the captain.

"Nothing, sir, except that those men are mistaken. I can only hope that they believe what they say," I answered, with a firmer voice than I had before been able to command.

"I am very sorry for it, and do not just now altogether believe it," I heard Dr McCall observe as he walked off. "You will expect your punishment--six dozen," said the captain. "Pipe down."

Could a painter at that moment have observed Iffley's countenance, it might have served him as a likeness of Satan when he is a.s.sured that Eve has fallen. The officers walked aft, the crew dispersed, and I was placed under charge of the master-at-arms.

Two days pa.s.sed by. How full of agony and wretchedness they were! The pain I was to expect was as nothing compared to the disgrace and degradation. I who had always borne an unsullied name, whose character had always stood high both with my officers and messmates, to be now branded as a thief! How could I ever face those I loved, conscious of the marks of the foul lash on my back? There was no one on board to speak in my favour; no one who had known me before--and how incapable I was of the act imputed to me--except Iffley; and he, I felt too well a.s.sured, would do his utmost to destroy me.

The two days pa.s.sed--no circ.u.mstance occurred, as I had hoped it might, to prove that I was innocent--when the boatswain's call summoned all hands on deck to witness punishment. This time I was to be the victim.

The boatswain's mates stood ready. One of them was Iffley. He played eagerly with his cat as I was led forward. "If come it must." I e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.ed, "the Lord have mercy on me--I will bear my punishment as a man."

CHAPTER TWELVE.

PUNISHMENT INTERRUPTED--PREPARATIONS FOR ACTION--BOAT OFF THE ENEMY--A CONFESSION--I AM PROVED TO BE INNOCENT--CAPTURE TWO PRIZES--ORDERED HOME IN ONE OF THEM--DESERTED BY OUR CONSORT--SPRING A LEAK--MUTINY OF PRISONERS.

"Strip!" said the captain.

I prepared to lay my shoulders bare to receive the lash.

"The Indiamen to windward are signalling to us, sir," shouted the signal midshipman, turning over the pages of the signal-book. "An enemy in sight on the weather-beam."

"Master-at-arms, take charge of the prisoner; punishment is deferred,"