“Jack is a great sport,” declared Jesse W., “but somebody called out ‘shark!’ a little too quick, for I nearly went to pieces.  It may Have been kind in him, but it was injudicious, to say the least.”

The boys smiled at the young fellow’s wisdom, and Billy Manners replied: 

“Well, it wasn’t me, J.W., although I know I do a good many fool things.  You can’t lay that at my door, however.”

“Oh, you are a facetious fellow, and keep us amused, but you do think of things,” replied the younger boy.  “The person who shouted ‘shark,’ is one of the sort who yell ‘fire’ at the first sign of smoke, and raise a panic in a crowded hall.  They should be suppressed.”

“Very true, J.W., you have the right of it,” said Billy, smiling.  “You get the right idea under your bonnet now and then.”

Young Smith had always been fond of Jack, but he was more so now and stuck close to the older boy on all occasions, saying the next day to Jack as they were walking on deck: 

“Do you know, Jack, you have done a lot for me, and it is time I did something for you.  I am going to speak to my father about you.  It is a bit of a job for you to get your schooling and your living and everything, isn’t it?”

“Well, it is not so easy, Jesse W., and I do have a tussle now and then,” returned Jack, smiling at the other boy’s earnestness.  “Still, one has to work for what he gets in this world.”

“Unless he steals it, and there is no satisfaction in that,” said the smaller boy wisely.  “And later he has to work—­in jail.  What I wanted to say was that now you have done this last thing for me, saving my life, that’s what it was, I think my father would like to do something for you, help you through your schooling or something like that.  Of course you would not want him to give you money, for he does not put a commercial value on my life, but he could help you to get ahead and so help yourself, couldn’t he now, Jack?”

“I suppose he could,” Jack laughed, “and you are a thoughtful young fellow, J.W., but never mind about that.  One of the sailors, Bucephalus, any one, in fact, could have done what I did.  In fact, it is all in the day’s work at sea, and nothing is thought of it.”

“No, but no one else did it, Jack.  Any one might, but no one did.  Only you.  Any one else could have done it, but they did not all the same.  That’s nonsense about your pitching me overboard.  I heard some of them talking of it.  Why, you were not there.  I was on the quarter deck, where I had no business to be, I suppose, with just a little bit of a low rail, and when the vessel took a sudden roll I went overboard.”

“Jack saw you up there,” said Percival, who was walking with the others, “and spoke about warning you that it was dangerous.  In fact, he was on the way to tell you when you got ahead of him and rolled overboard.”

“Jack is all the time thinking of some one,” said young Smith.  “That’s what makes him different from the other Hilltop boys.”