Ha! ha!" "What are you laughing at ?" said the fellow testily.
"Odd idea! I was just looking at those sad old patched boots there on your feet, and thinking to myself what leaky fire-buckets they would be to pass up a ladder on a burning building.

It would hardly be fair now to swop my new boots for those old fire-buckets, would it ?" "By plunko!" cried the fellow, willing now by a bold stroke to change the subject, which was growing slightly annoying; "by plunko, I believe we are getting nigh Dover.

Let's see." And so saying, he sprang up the ladder to the deck.

Upon Israel following, he found the little craft half becalmed, rolling on short swells almost in the exact middle of the channel.

It was just before the break of the morning; the air clear and fine; the heavens spangled with moistly twinkling stars.