He knew Baxter was still forward, and ran in that direction.  The bully saw him coming and tried to hide in the forecastle, but Dick was too quick for him and hauled him back on the deck.

“Take that for shoving my brother overboard, you scoundrel!” he exclaimed, and hit Baxter a staggering blow straight between the eyes.

“Stop!” roared the bully, and struck out in return.  But Dick dodged the blow, and then hit Baxter in the chin and on the nose.  The elder Rover boy was excited, and hit with all of his force, and the bully measured his length on the deck.

“Good fer you!” cried old Jerry, who stood looking on.  “That’s the way to serve him, the sarpint!”

Slowly Baxter arose to his knees, and then his feet, where he stood glaring at Dick.

“Don’t you hit me again!” he muttered.

“But I will,” retorted Dick, and struck out once more.  This time his fist landed on the bully’s left eye, and once again Baxter went down, this time with a thud.

The sailors were collecting, and soon Jack Lesher rushed up.  He stepped between Dick and the bully.

“Stop it!” he ordered harshly.  “We don’t allow fighting on board of this craft.”

“I wasn’t fighting,” answered Dick coolly.  “I was just teaching a rascal a lesson.”

“It amounts to the same thing.  If you have any fault to find tell the captain, or tell me.”

“Well, I’ll go to the captain, not you,” retorted Dick.

“All right,” growled the first mate.  “But just remember you can’t boss things when I’m around.”

When Captain Blossom understood the situation he was thoroughly angry.

“Baxter certainly ought to be in prison,” he said.  “I’ll clap him in the brig and feed him on bread and water for three days and see how he likes that.”

“He ought not to be left at large,” said Dora, with a shudder.  “He may try to murder somebody next.”

“We’ll watch him after this,” said the captain.

He kept his word about putting Baxter in the ship’s jail.  But through Lesher the bully, got much better fare than bread and water.  Strange as it may seem, a warm friendship sprang up between the bully and the first mate.

“I aint got nothing against you, Baxter,” said Jack Lesher.  “When we get to Australia perhaps we can work together, eh?” and he closed one eye suggestively.  Baxter had told him of his rich relative, and the mate thought there might be a chance to get money from Baxter.  “He’d rather give me money than have me tell his relation what sort of a duck he is,” said Lesher to himself.

After this incident the time passed pleasantly enough for over a week.  When Baxter came from the brig he went to work without a word.  Whenever he passed the Rovers or the girls he acted as if he did not know they were there, and they ignored him just as thoroughly.  But the boys watched every move the bully made.