“Under my berth-sack.”

“Are you willing I should take possession of it, and hand it to Mr. Lowington?”

“I will agree to anything which you think is right.”

“Then I will take the wine and throw it overboard.”

“Just as you think best, sir.  You will find the two bottles in my berth, No. 43, Gangway D,—­the forward one on the starboard side.”

“I hope you will never touch the wine-cup again.”

“I will not—­till next time,” added Shuffles, as the chaplain moved towards the door of the brig.

“’Look not thou upon the wine when it is red, when it giveth his color in the cup, at the last it biteth like a serpent, and stingeth like an adder,’” continued the chaplain, as he passed out of the lock-up.

Mr. Agneau went to the prisoner’s berth, and found the two bottles of wine.  They were a sufficient explanation of the remarkable conduct of Shuffles.  The youth had “drank wine, and was drunken,” otherwise he would not have been guilty of such flagrant disobedience.  Though in his own estimation the excuse was worse than the original fault, yet it was an explanation; and if the root of the evil could be removed, the evil itself would cease to exist.  The wine could be thrown overboard, and as no more could be obtained during the voyage, the good conduct of the young tippler would be insured, at least till the ship reached Queenstown, which was the port to which she was bound.

With the two bottles in his hands, the chaplain returned to the professors’ cabin.  Mr. Lowington was on deck.  He did not deem it prudent to leave the ship in the hands of the students, at first, without any supervision, and it was arranged that the principal, Mr. Fluxion, and Mr. Peake, the boatswain, should take turns in observing the course and management of the vessel.  Mr. Agneau carried the prize he had captured on deck, and informed Mr. Lowington what had just transpired in the brig.

“I knew the boy drank wine when he was at home,” replied the principal; “and if he is ruined, his father must blame himself.”

“But it is really shocking!” exclaimed the chaplain as he tossed one of the bottles of wine over the rail.  “How can a parent permit his son to drink wine, when he knows that more men are killed by intemperance than by war and pestilence?  I am amazed!”

“So am I, Mr. Agneau.”

“The boy is hardly to blame for his conduct, since he contracted this vicious habit under the eye of his father.”

“The discipline of the ship must be preserved.”

“Certainly, Mr. Lowington.”

“And the boy is just as much to blame for his act of disobedience as though it had been done in his sober senses.”

“But you can afford to pardon him, under the circumstances.”

“I will do that when he is willing to make a proper acknowledgment of his offence in the presence of the ship’s company, before whom the act was committed.”