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confused thoughts and fears; but such was far from the case. Billy was waiting to

see if the mate would revive sufficiently to return across the deck before the next

wave swept the ship. It was very interesting--he wondered what odds O'Leary

would have laid against the man.

In another moment the wave would come. Billy glanced at the open cabin hatch.

That would never do--the cabin would be flooded with tons of water should the

next wave find the hatch still open. Billy closed it. Then he looked again toward

Theriere. The man was just recovering consciousness--and the wave was coming.

Something stirred within Billy Byrne. It gripped him and made him act quickly as

though by instinct to do something that no one, Billy himself least of all, would

have suspected that the Grand Avenue mucker would have been capable of.

Across the deck Theriere was dragging himself painfully to his hands and knees,

as though to attempt the impossible feat of crawling back to the cabin hatch. The

wave was almost upon Billy. In a moment it would engulf him, and then rush on

across him to tear Theriere from the deck and hurl him beyond the ship into the

tumbling, watery, chaos of the sea.

The mucker saw all this, and in the instant he launched himself toward the man

for whom he had no use, whose kind he hated, reaching him as the great wave

broke over them, crushing them to the deck, choking and blinding them.

For a moment they were buried in the swirling maelstrom, and then as the

Halfmoon rose again, shaking the watery enemy from her back, the two men were

disclosed--Theriere half over the ship's side--the mucker clinging to him with one

hand, the other clutching desperately at a huge cleat upon the gunwale.

Byrne dragged the mate to the deck, and then slowly and with infinite difficulty

across it to the cabin hatch. Through it he pushed the man, tumbling after him

and closing the aperture just as another wave swept the Halfmoon.

Theriere was conscious and but little the worse for his experience, though badly

bruised. He looked at the mucker in astonishment as the two faced each other in

the cabin.

I don't know why you did it," said Theriere.

Neither do I," replied Billy Byrne.

I shall not forget it, Byrne," said the officer.

Yeh'd better," answered Billy, turning away.

The Mucker