This is a trick, you young blackguard.

You've run away, you have;' and the captain stamped about the deck and swore dreadfully; for, you see, the thought of having to stop the ship and lower a boat and lose half an hour, all for the slake of sending a small boy ashore, seemed to make him very angry.

Besides, it was blowin' fresh outside the harbour, so that, to have let the steamer alongside to put me into it was no easy job.

Just as we were passing the pier-head, where several boats were rowing into harbour, the captain came up to me,-- "'You've run away, you blackguard,' he said, giving me a box on the ear.
"'No I haven't,' said I, angrily; for the box was by no means a light one.
"Hark'ee, boy, can you swim ?' "'Yes,' said I.
"'Then do it,' and, seizing me by my trousers and the nape of my neck, he tossed me over the side into the sea.

The fellows in the boats at the end of the pier, backed their oars on seeing this; but observing that I could swim, they allowed me to make the best of my way to the pier-head.
So, you see, Ralph, that I really did swim my first homeward voyage." Jack laughed and patted Peterkin on the shoulder.