"Ay, ay, sir," answered the mate. "Stand by to hoist the staysail," said he, as he came forward. "Jump out there, Kelly, and cast that stop off." The staysail had been furled ever since the night we let go our anchor in Sydney, being stowed flat down on the netting, and stopped with a short piece of small rope. Kelly had cast off the stop, and sung out "Hoist away!" when he nearly lost his balance and fell overboard, as the folds of the canvas opened before him, and a powerful, sun-browned man, with hair and beard close shaven, leaped out on the bowsprit, and stood staring into his astonished eyes. "Hillo!" shouted the mate; "Who the devil is this boarding us over the bows? Here, this way, you, sir! Where did you come from?" The strange man had by this time jumped in on deck, and casting a glance astern at the dim outline of the land melting in the horizon, muttered: "All right, he wont put back now to land me." "That's the very man who was lurking round the Jolly Tar," said Ashton to me, as he came aft with the mate. "Who are you?" asked Captain Upton. "A convict, I suppose, or you wouldn't be shaved and shingled so closely. Either an escaped convict, or a deserter from the army. Are you the man they were searching for this morning?" The stranger folded his arms, and answered boldly: "Yes, sir; I'm an escaped convict, as you call it, or as I should say, a runaway lag. I am the very man they were looking for this morning. My name is--never mind what it really is--I am best known as Galway Mike." I observed that there was no Irish accent in his speech. The title by which he was known was evidently a misnomer. "And how long have you been stowed away in the staysail?" "Since last night, sir;" he replied. "Did any of my crew help you, or stow you away?" "No, sir. No one of them knew I was there until now, and you would not have known it till to-morrow, if you hadn't had occasion to hoist the sail." "And what do you expect me to do with you now?" asked the captain, who was evidently impressed by the man's speech and bearing, and who had that repugnance that all seamen feel to delivering up to justice any man who has thrown himself on their protection. The certainty of a hundred pounds reward, would not, probably, have tempted a man of the ship's company to vote for putting back to land him, though none of us really wanted him as a shipmate. "You'll do what you please with me, of course," answered the convict, coolly. "I don't care much what it is, so that you don't carry me back to the chain-gang. I hope you won't do that, sir." "No, I'm sure I shall not do that, with a forty miles offing, a strong westerly wind, and homeward bound;" said the old man. "Well, sir, I'm willing to do duty and act a man's part on board the ship," said Galway Mike. "I'm not much of a sailor, but I've been a short time at sea, and I'm strong and willing."