He had really, in spite of all that Mick said, been doing his part to assist me; and now, from his loosing his hold of the tub, which he had been trying to shove upwards on the one side the same as I did on the other, while the other two fellows above us pulled, the beastly thing came sliding back a step on me; and, as I was not holding on to anything, and the ship lurched at the moment, making Mick and Finlayson both let go at the same time, I tumbled incontinently backwards on to the lower deck, with the gashing-tub on top of me! My good providence, however, still watched over me; for, as I fell, a big wave, coming splosh right over the side into the waist, poured down bodily through the hatchway, floating away the tub and flooding the lower deck. This probably saved my life, as had the heavy tub fallen really on top of me I should have been squashed into a jelly. "Faith, I belaive ye've ez many loives ez a cat," cried Mick, making little, in proper sailor fashion, of my peril; and then, dropping his voice so that the others shouldn't hear him, he added, "Whisht, Tom-- faith it's thet nasty baste `Ugly' thet done it; an', sure, he's done it a-purpos!" "No, Mick, I don't believe that," I whispered, in my turn, picking myself up with the aid of my suspicious chum, who proceeded to help me in clearing away the remains of the garbage from the tub which had been emptied into my jumper. "The fellow started back at sight of me, and I don't think he meant to leave go of the gashing-tub as he did." "Begorrah!" cried Mick indignantly, "why didn't he stop and say so loike a man, insted ov snakin' away loike a cur?" I cast my eyes about me and saw, truly enough, that `Ugly' had disappeared. CHAPTER FIFTEEN. COMEDY TO TRAGEDY. "Hullo, my lads! This won't do, this won't do!" shouted out a petty officer just then, as he came tacking about the deck and trying to make a straight course for the hatchway. "There'd be a fine row if Number One came along here and saw that theer mess on the deck!" "Faith, we couldn't hilp it, row or no row," said Mick, whose temper was a little bit heated from the recollection of `Ugly's' conduct, and the fright he really had experienced on my account in spite of his trying to treat it as a joke. "Sure, sor, the toob toombled down atop ov this poor bhoy here, an' a'most made gammy duff ov him!" "Well, well, p'raps y'll have better luck next time," replied the man jokingly; and, turning to me, he said in a kindly way, "A miss is as good as a mile, my lad; but, accident or no accident, you'll have to clear up that mess there, or there'll be ructions aboard, I can tell you!" "All roight, sor," said Mick, as he clutched hold of a swab which we had brought with us, in case of such an emergency. "Oi'll make it roight, sure, in a brace ov shakes, sor."