the far corner of the forecastle, rammed halfway beneath a
bunk by the force of the terrific blow. Like a tiger Billy
Byrne was after him, and dragging the man out into the
center of the floor space he beat and mauled him until his
victim's blood-curdling shrieks echoed through the ship from
stem to stern.

When the captain, followed by a half-dozen seamen rushed
down the companionway, he found Billy sitting astride the
prostrate form of the mate. His great fingers circled the man's
throat, and with mighty blows he was dashing the fellow's
head against the hard floor. Another moment and murder
would have been complete.

"Avast there!" cried the captain, and as though to punctuate
his remark he swung the heavy stick he usually carried
full upon the back of Billy's head. It was that blow that
saved the mate's life, for when Billy came to he found himself
in a dark and smelly hole, chained and padlocked to a
heavy stanchion.

They kept Billy there for a week; but every day the
captain visited him in an attempt to show him the error of
his way. The medium used by the skipper for impressing
his ideas of discipline upon Billy was a large, hard stick.
At the end of the week it was necessary to carry Billy above
to keep the rats from devouring him, for the continued beatings
and starvation had reduced him to little more than an
unconscious mass of raw and bleeding meat.