put that wild man to bed.' He pointed at Jim.

'Are you licked, then, Ryan?'

'Licked it is. Any man is li'ble to wander into error, maybe, but there's
wan thing about Phil Ryan, he's open to conviction, an' he's had all the
conviction he wants this blessed night.'

'Then we've had enough?' said the second, with an uneasy eye on Jim.

'We have that,' continued Ryan, 'onless some other gintleman would like
to resoom th' argumint where I dthropped it.' The fallen hero ran his
good eye eagerly from face to face.

But Done had already returned to his bunk, and the others seemed
indisposed to put him to further trouble. No more jokes were played upon
the Hermit. The cynics and the wits developed a pronouncedly serious
vein, and it was resolved that for the future Jim Done should take his
own road, and behave in his own peculiar way, without provoking objection
from the company.

'Tis a curtyis an' gintlemanly risolution,' said Ryan, tenderly
caressing his inflated eye, 'an' a great pity it is we forgot to think iv
it sooner.'

The respect the forecastle had acquired for Done was vastly increased by
his rescue of Lucy Woodrow. Conduct that had previously been ascribed to
mere conceit was now accounted for by most romantic imaginings, for it is
a cardinal belief amongst men of their class that the true fighter is
superior to all little weaknesses and small motives. When the girl