"Pooh! the case is clear--we need not talk about it any longer. A clear case, Mr Farmer. Mr Rattlin has charge of the forecastle--he descries a vessel ahead--he takes upon himself to order the helm hard a-port, and we run over and sink her accordingly. He is responsible, clearly." "Clearly," was the answering echo from all the rejectors of responsibility. "Mr Rattlin, I am sorry for you. I once thought you a promising young man; but, since your desertion at Aniana--we must not mince matters now--you have become quite an altered character. You seem to have lost all zeal for the service. Zeal for the service is a thing that ought not to be lost; for a young gentleman without zeal for the service is a young gentleman, surely--you understand me--who is not zealous in the performance of his duty. I think I have made myself tolerably clear. Do you think, sir, I should hold now the responsible commission I do hold under his Majesty, if I had been without zeal for the service? I am sorry that I have a painful duty to perform. I must place you under an arrest, till I know what may be the port admiral's pleasure concerning this unpleasant business; for--for the loss of the _Mary Anne_ of London you are clearly responsible." "Clearly" (_omnes rursus_). "Had you sung out hard a-starboard, instead of hard a-port, the case might have been different." "Clearly." "Go down below to your berth, and consider yourself a prisoner. The young gentlemen in his Majesty's service are not permitted to run down West Indiamen with impunity." "Clearly." In these kind of capstan-head court-martials, at which captains will sometimes administer reefers' law, "Woe to the weakest!" A defence was quite a work of superfluity; so, consoling myself with the vast responsibility with which, all at once, I found myself invested, I went and turned in, anathematising every created thing above an inch high and a foot below the same dimensions. However, in a very sound sleep I soon forgot everything--even the horrible scene I had just witnessed. CHAPTER FIFTY EIGHT. DISTRESSING DISCLOSURES, AND SOME VERY PRETTY SYMPTOMS OF BROTHERLY LOVE--WITH MUCH EXCELLENT INDIGNATION UTTERLY THROWN AWAY--JOSHUA DAUNTON EITHER A VERY GREAT MAN OR A VERY GREAT ROGUE--PERHAPS BOTH, AS THE TERMS ARE OFTEN SYNONYMOUS.