"Mr Lynton's grandmother!" roared the captain, snatching up a coil of rope and flinging it to the bareheaded man in the boat, who caught it deftly as it opened out in rings. "Here, what do you mean by that cock-and-bull story, Dick Dellow?" "Cock-and-bull?" stuttered the mate, scratching his head. "Yes, cock-and-bull," roared the captain. "Can't you see he's there, all alive, oh! in that canoe? Here, you, Tom Jinks, lay hold of this rope, and don't stand making faces there like a jibbering idiot. Catch hold." "No, no," faltered the great sailor; "it's his--" "Catch hold!" roared the captain; "if any man here says ghost to me, law or no law, I'll rope's-end him." The big sailor's hands trembled as he took the rope, but before he had given it a pull one occupant of the canoe came scrambling on board with the other end of the rope in his hand, while the canoe, now lightened of half its load, glided astern, with the black paddling hard. "There's going to be a row," whispered Brace merrily to his brother, as they stood there, feeling as though a great weight had been removed from their breasts. He was quite right, for before the supposed drowned man had taken a couple of steps the captain was at him. "Here, you, sir," he roared, "do you want to have sunstroke? Where's your hat?" "I dunno," was the reply. "Here," shouted the captain, who was in a towering passion, "where's that Tom Jinks?" "Here he is, sir; here he is, sir," cried half a dozen voices, and the men opened out to give him a full view of the trembling sailor. "Now, sir, what call had you to tell us that you had brought Mr Lynton aboard last night?" "So we did--didn't we, mate?" This to another of the sailors, who was staring hard at the new-comer. "Oh, yes, we fetched him off in the little boat," said the man addressed. "No, you didn't," said the second mate sourly. "Well!" exclaimed Tom Jinks, who began to see now that it was real flesh and blood before him. "Why, we did, and you was--well, I ain't going to say what. Wasn't he, mate?" "Oh, yes, that's a true word," said the other man. "You don't know what you're talking about," said the second mate indignantly; "and if either of you says that I was on I'll knock you down." "No, you won't, James Lynton," said the captain warmly. "You don't handle either of my men. Look here, did you come aboard last night in the boat?" "No, of course not." "Then who did?" cried the captain. "The men must have brought somebody." "Oh, yes," said Tom Jinks, "we brought him aboard." "I say you didn't," cried Lynton. "I went to sleep, I s'pose, after dinner, and I didn't wake up again till this morning." "Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself, James Lynton," said the captain indignantly. "I _ham_," cried the second mate boldly: "right down, and no mistake." "A warning to you not to go out eating and drinking more than is good for you," said the captain.