“No, you won’t, James Lynton,” said the captain warmly. “You don’t handle either of my men. Look here, did you come aboard last night in the boat?”
“No, of course not.”
“Then who did?” cried the captain. “The men must have brought somebody.”
“Oh, yes,” said Tom Jinks, “we brought him aboard.”
“I say you didn’t,” cried Lynton. “I went to sleep, I s’pose, after dinner, and I didn’t wake up again till this morning.”
“Then you ought to be ashamed of yourself, James Lynton,” said the captain indignantly.
“I ham,” cried the second mate boldly: “right down, and no mistake.”
“A warning to you not to go out eating and drinking more than is good for you,” said the captain.
“I didn’t,” replied the mate. “I took just what was good for me, and no more.”
“It seems like it,” said the captain sarcastically. “Instead of coming aboard in your own ship’s boat according to the terms of your leave, you come back in a dug-out after your vessel’s sailed, and without a hat.”