“Eef we were een France—­”

“Which we are not.  We are still in America, the land of the free.  But I don’t care to have a quarrel with you.  Bruce put the fellow down.  If he minds his business in the future, don’t throw him overboard.”

“All right,” grunted the big fellow; “but I was just going to drop him in the wet.”

He put the man down, and the fellow seemed undecided what to do.

Harry Rattleton laughed.

“Now wake a talk—­no, I mean take a walk,” he cried.  “It will be a good thing for your health.”

“Come, Maurel,” said the master, with an attempt at dignity; “come away from ze fellows!”

Maurel was glad enough to do so.  He had thought to frighten the youths without the least trouble, but had been handled with such ease that even after it was all over he wondered how it could have happened.

M. Montfort walked away with great dignity, and Maurel followed, talking savagely and swiftly in French.

“Well, it wasn’t very hard to settle them,” grinned Browning.

“But we have not settled them,” declared Frank.  “There will be further trouble with M. Rouen Montfort and his man Maurel.”

CHAPTER III.

A fresh young man.

Frank and his three friends bad a stateroom together.  The tutor was given a room with other parties.

The weather for the first two days was fine, and the young collegians enjoyed every minute, not one of them having a touch of sea-sickness till the third day.

Then Rattleton was seized, and he lay in his bunk, groaning and dismal, even though he tried to be cheerful at times.

Browning enjoyed everything, even Rattleton’s misery, for he could be lazy to his heart’s content.

They had enlivened the times by singing songs, those of a nautical flavor, such as “Larboard Watch” and “A Life on the Ocean Wave,” having the preference.

Now it happened that the Frenchman occupied a room adjoining, and he was very much annoyed by their singing.  He pounded on the partition, and expressed his feelings in very lurid language, but that amused them, and they sang the louder.

“M.  Montfort seems to get very agitated,” said Frank, laughing.

“But I hardly think there is any danger that he will do more than hammer on the partition,” grunted Bruce.  “He’s kept away from us since he found he could not frighten anybody.”

“He’s a bluffer,” was Diamond’s opinion.

“He’s a great fellow to play cards,” said Merry.  “But he seems to ply for something more than amusement.”

“How’s that?” asked Jack, interested.

“I’ve noticed that he never cares for whist or any game where there are no stakes.  He gets into a game only when there’s something to be won.”

“Well, it seems to me that he’s struck a poor crowd on this boat if he’s looking for suckers.  He should have shipped on an ocean liner.  What does he play?”