"In mercy to yourself do not say such things," I exclaimed, as I turned away from my two messmates. Mr Henley had warned me, when some days before I had observed that I hoped the captain had improved, that before long he would break out as bad as ever. Such in a few days I unhappily found to be the case. Not only did he become as bad, but worse than ever, and I heard Dr Cuff tell Mr Henley that he did not think that he could possibly survive such continued hard drinking. The first mate overheard the remark, which was made probably in kindness as a warning to him. It had in one respect the effect intended. He kept himself perfectly sober, and attended carefully to the navigation of the ship; but I could not help strongly suspecting that he was seized with the ambition of becoming captain, and of having to take the ship home. Mr Henley and the doctor thought so likewise, for he at once assumed the airs of a master, and became more dictatorial and overbearing than ever. There lay the wretched captain, unconscious, in his berth, and of course this man was virtually in command of the ship. One day, after we had been rather more than a week at sea, I had called Tommy Bigg aft, and was speaking to him, directing him to do something or other, when Mr Grimes came up close to us. "What do you do here?--go forward to your kennel, you young--," he exclaimed, with an oath. Tommy heard him, but his impulse was to wait till I had finished my sentence. This momentary delay so enraged the first mate, that he flew at the poor little fellow, knocked him down with his fist, and then began to kick him along the deck as if he had been a foot-ball. "Coward! brute!" I exclaimed, gasping for breath; and losing all command of myself, I rushed in before Tommy. "Let alone the child-- you'll kill him if you continue to treat him thus; if you do I will brand you as a murderer. Help! help! he is killing the boy." My cries were heard throughout the ship. The first mate, as was to be expected, turned his fury upon me. "Mutiny! mutiny!" he exclaimed, lifting up his fist to strike me. He would have felled me to the deck, and I should have received the same treatment from which I had attempted to save Tommy Bigg, when his arm was seized by Mr Henley, who had at that instant sprung on deck. "What are you about, Grimes?" he exclaimed; "this behaviour is unworthy of an officer. He is no mutineer. Anybody with feeling would have attempted to save that poor boy from your cruelty." "I didn't doubt that you would have shoved in your officious interference at every opportunity," growled out the first mate, turning fiercely on Mr Henley; "you'll find, however, before long, that you have interfered once too often, and that you have caught a Tartar."