"Why, do you see, sir," he said to Stallman, who sat as judge on his trial, "it somehow or other got into my tub of hot water, and I never knowed it; and when I went to heave the water overboard, I then see'd the glitter of it in the sea, as it sunk to the bottom." The defence was ingenious, and as there was no witness to prove to the contrary, Bobby escaped punishment on that occasion; though, as he had been seen in deep confabulation with an ill-looking Jew a short time afterwards, suspicion went much against him. From bad, things grew to worse with Bobby Smudge. Not a day passed, scarcely an hour, that he did not taste the flavour of a rope's-end--most frequently bestowed by his master, the carpenter. "You will be the death of me, I know you will, Master Chissel," he groaned out one day, when his castigator was even severer than usual. "I'll go and drown myself, that I will, if this goes on much longer-- you'll see if I don't. I won't stand it, that I won't;" and he blubbered as few have blubbered before. "You will, will you, you young scamp?" exclaimed the carpenter, seizing a rope's-end. "Take that, then, and remember, when you come back from the drowning of yourself, I'll give you six times as much." And poor Bobby got it worse than ever. I think Chissel was very wrong in the way he treated the poor wretch. Had he been tolerably kind and considerate, he might, I am certain, have worked on his good feelings, and certainly have improved him; but the unhappy lad had from his earliest days been so constantly knocked about, and so accustomed to receive more kicks than halfpence, that all his better feelings had been pretty well beaten out of him. It so happened that one evening, as the ship was running pretty fast through the water, and as darkness was coming rapidly on, a loud splash was heard alongside, and that cry, so startling to a seaman's heart, was raised--"A man overboard!" "Silence, fore and aft," sang out Captain Poynder, who at the same moment appeared on deck. "Does anybody see him?" There was no answer. "Does anybody hear him?" There was an ominous silence. A pin might have been heard to drop on deck. The life-buoy had been let go at the first by the officer of the watch. Its signal fire now burned bright astern, but no one was seen clinging to it. There could be little doubt that the poor fellow, whoever he was, had sunk at once. The ship had been running at the time a few points off the wind. She was now brought close on a wind, and then the helm was put down, and she was hove about with her head towards the life-buoy. While she was in stays, the two quarter-boats were manned and lowered. Mr Vernon jumped into one of them, and the master into another; and as the frigate lost her way, they shoved off and pulled in the direction of the spot where the man was supposed to have fallen.