"'Kind gentlemen,'" he sighed, "your pains are registered where
every day I turn the leaf to read'--Macbeth, valiant Commodore and
Captain!--what the Thane says to the noble lords, Ross and Angus."

And long and lingeringly bowing to the two noble officers, Jack
backed away from their presence, still shading his eyes with the
broad rim of his hat.

"Jack Chase for ever!" cried his shipmates, as he carried the
grateful news of liberty to them on the forecastle. "Who can talk
to Commodores like our matchless Jack!"



CHAPTER LII.

SOMETHING CONCERNING MIDSHIPMEN.


It was the next morning after matchless Jack's interview with the
Commodore and Captain, that a little incident occurred, soon
forgotten by the crew at large, but long remembered by the few
seamen who were in the habit of closely scrutinising every-day
proceedings. Upon the face of it, it was but a common event--at
least in a man-of-war--the flogging of a man at the gangway. But
the under-current of circumstances in the case were of a nature
that magnified this particular flogging into a matter of no
small importance. The story itself cannot here be related; it
would not well bear recital: enough that the person flogged was a
middle-aged man of the Waist--a forlorn, broken-down, miserable