can."

"Would you not have acted, under similar circumstances, precisely as
we suppose Captain Littlestone to have done?"

"I admit that the thing, is not only possible, but also that, if
alive, it is just what he would have done. I trust, if it be so, that
when he gets into port he will report me keel-hauled?"

"Keel-hauled?"

"Yes, I mean dead. It is a thousand times better to pass for a dead
man than a deserter."

"The wisest course he could pursue, it appears to me, would be to hold
his tongue--probably you will not be missed."

"Ah! you think that her Majesty's blue jackets can disappear in that
way, like musk-rats? But no such thing. When the captain in command at
the station hails on board, every man and boy of the crew, from the
powder-monkey to the first-lieutenant, are mustered in pipe-clay on
the quarter-deck, and there, with the ship's commission in his hand,
every one must report himself as he calls over the names.

"Then the captain will tell the simple truth."

"Well, you see, truth has nothing at all to do with the rules of the
service, the questions printed in the orderly-book only will be asked,
and he may not have an opportunity of stating the facts of the case;
besides, discipline on board a ship in commission could not be