“‘I see you, sir—­I see you, Mr. Jervis, fishing again, sir.  Very well,’ cried the first lieutenant, from the sternsheets of the boat, as he passed by.  ‘You’ve your duty to do, and I’ve got mine.’  ’That’s as good as two dozen to-morrow morning at muster,’ thought Jack, who cursed his luck, and, in a very melancholy mood, began to haul up his line, which, as soon as he had been discovered, he had let go down to the bottom again.  Now, it so happened that, as Old Duty went up the other side, his foot slipped; and, how it was I can’t tell, for they say he wasn’t the least groggy, but down he fell, between the boat’s gunnel and the ship’s side, just like a deep-sea lead, and disappeared.  There being so few men on deck, there was not much of a bustle—­there was a dive or two for him with the boat-hook, but all in vain—­Old Duty was gone.

“In the meantime, Jack on the other side was slowly hauling up his line; but he had not got it half-way up when he felt a heavy strain, and he thought that a large conger eel had followed the bait up, as they do sometimes, and he hauled and hauled with all his might.  At last, who should he bring to the surface of the water but Old Duty, who had been sucked under the ship’s bottom by the tide, and had been hooked by Jack, as he was pulling up.  When Jack saw it was the first lieutenant, as he told me, his first idea was to let him down again; but that was only for a moment.  The words of the first lieutenant still rang in his ears, ’You’ve your duty to do, and I’ve got mine’—­so Jack did his duty.  He hollows out that he had caught Old Duty, and the boat shifted round and took him on board.  The old fellow was quite senseless; but as he had been but a short time in the water, he was put to bed, and resuscitated by the surgeon.  The next morning he was all just as if nothing had happened, walking the deck with his right hand in his breast, and his spy-glass under his left arm, as usual.

“Well, we all told Jack that he was safe this time, but Jack seemed to think otherwise.  He shook his head; and now you’ll learn who was right.

“When the boys were all mustered next morning, toeing a line, and holding out their paws, the first lieutenant turns round and says, ‘Jervis, you were fishing last night, against my orders.’  ‘Yes, sir,’ said Jervis, ‘and I catched a first lieutenant;’ for Jack had a good deal of fun in him.  ‘Yes, sir, and queer fishes they are sometimes,’ replies Old Duty; ’but you forget that you have also catched two dozen.  You have your duty to do, and I’ve got mine.’

“Well, as you may suppose, there were many of us looking abaft, just to see what would take place, and were not a little astonished at the idea of his rewarding Jack with two dozen for saving his life; however, of course, we were mum.  Jack was tied up; and the first lieutenant whispered a word into the ear of his master-at-arms, who again whispered to Williams, the boatswain’s mate; and the effect of that whisper was, that the cat was laid on so lightly that Jack hardly felt it; so lightly, indeed, that the first lieutenant walked away aft, that he might not appear to be a party in the consarn, and Jack was cast off without having half a tear in either eye when Old Duty went up to him.