Upon one occasion the first lieutenant cursed the prisoner to his face, and observed, "Ah! you brute, you thought to murder me, did you?" Upon hearing this the man quietly replied, "Forgive me, sir--I am sorry for it." "Forgive you, you hound! Yes--I'll forgive you when you're swinging from the yard-arm." Instead of checking Crushe in his shameful tyranny, the death of his brother officer seemed to make him perfectly reckless, he doubtless thinking there was now no appeal or chance of hearing for his victims. He never for a moment appeared to remember that Ford's words about "dying for him" were true, and indeed, one day, when discussing the good officer's death, he remarked to Cravan, "Possibly I should have done the magnanimous had I been in poor Ford's place. He could afford to say, 'Bless you, shipmates,' as he knew very well that his anchor was tripped." Nosey did not make any reply to this brutal speech, as the mere recollection of the affair made him shudder. When the Stinger arrived at Hong-Kong, Byrne was sent on board the flagship, and after a few days had elapsed, a court-martial was called upon his case. A well-known lawyer offered gratuitously to assist the prisoner, but his services were respectfully declined. Crushe, the ship's corporal, and sergeant of marines, were the principal witnesses against the man; some petty officers were also examined, but not a word was said that would lead any member of the court to imagine the first lieutenant was anything but a gentle, humane officer. The man had no defence, nor would he throw himself upon the mercy of the court, all he wanted being to die. After mature deliberation, the court found the prisoner "Guilty," without the usual recommendation to mercy, and the president passed sentence of death in the ordinary form; adding that the prisoner was to be hanged from the yard-arm, and that the sentence was to be carried out on board the Stinger. Byrne received the sentence with a calmness which was almost touching; and after bowing to the president was handcuffed, and taken back to his cell. The chaplain visited the doomed man, but the latter declined his services, observing that he did not require government religion, as his own faith was sufficient to carry him through. One morning at sunrise the Stinger steamed out of Hong-Kong harbour, with several boats towing alongside. These had brought "black-list men" from various ships in the fleet, who were detailed to assist at the execution of Byrne. Forward on the hammock netting, abreast of the fore hatchway, and over a gun port, a grating was rigged platform wise; to this the fatal noose was secured by a rope yarn, the fall being led across the deck to the starboard side, so that the black-list men could not see the object which they were to run aloft.