Produced by Al Haines [Illustration: Cover art] THE CAPTAIN'S BUNK A STORY FOR BOYS BY M. B. MANWELL AUTHOR OF 'THE BENTS OF BATTERSBY,' ETC. WITH COLOURED ILLUSTRATIONS LONDON THE RELIGIOUS TRACT SOCIETY 4 BOUVERIE STREET AND 65 ST. PAUL'S CHURCHYARD 1898 CONTENTS CHAP. I. A PLAGUEY PAIR II. A NOVEL TRADE III. 'MISS THEEDORY' IV. BINKS'S BIT O' TEACHIN' V. BREAKERS AHEAD VI. THE LITTLE MOTHER VII. MUTINY AT THE BUNK VIII. THEO'S HAVEN IX. COMING EVENTS X. UNDER ARREST XI. A TANGLED WEB XII. IN THE FAR NORTH XIII. IN PERIL ON THE SEA XIV. A DOOR OF ESCAPE XV. THE BIRD-SCHOOL XVI. THE SEAMY SIDE OF LIFE XVII. IN THE MIRE XVIII. IN MULLINER'S RENTS XIX. NO PLACE LIKE HOME THE CAPTAIN'S BUNK CHAPTER I A PLAGUEY PAIR 'Do the thing that's nearest, Though it's dull at whiles.' If anybody wanted to go down and have a look round Northbourne for himself, it would be necessary to take a railway journey as far as Brattlesby town, and then tramp the rest of the road, unless a friendly chance befell the traveller of a lift in some passing vehicle. There had never been so much as a talk of extending the railway line to Northbourne, which was a quaint little fishing village tucked away under the shelter of a long stretch of downs. It consisted of a few small thatched cottages that had seated themselves, as it were, in a semicircle round the tiny bay, to peep out from its shelter at the far, open ocean, the highway of waters on which the outward-bound liners loomed like grey ghostly shadows as they passed. There were but two of what is known as gentry's houses in Northbourne. Oddly enough, each of them finished off the half-circle of cottages, and in that way they stared across the bay at one another, face to face. One of the two, the Bunk, had been for some years inhabited by an elderly half-pay naval officer, Captain Carnegy, and his motherless boys and girls. The other house was the Vicarage, the habitation of Mr. Vesey, the good old vicar, his invalid wife, and a pair of excitable Yorkshire terriers, Splutters and Shutters, thus curiously named for the sake of rhyme, it is to be presumed. They were brothers, and as tricky a pair as one could meet, ever up to their eyes in mischief from morning until night. Indeed, Splutters and Shutters kept what would have been a still, staid household in nearly as great a ferment as did the captain's crew the Bunk across the bay.