Haskett was discovered mending his jacket, which had become torn the evening before. "What do you want?" he asked, as Walter ran up and caught him fiercely by the arm.
"I want you to own up to your dirty trick on me," answered the boy. "You thought you had me, but your little plot won't work."
"What do you mean?" blustered Haskett, although he knew well enough what was coming.
By this time the crowd had followed Walter, and they gathered round the pair. Soon Haskett had heard all there was to say.
"Don't lay it off on me," he cried. "I knew Russell was guilty from the start. Si Doring can think as he pleases. As for me, I'm glad that I'm not training with a night-walker--or a thief."
Walter leaped forward with blazing eyes. But before he could strike out, Caleb caught him, while another man held Haskett. Then, before anything more could be done or said, Si stepped to the front.
"Haskett, I lost the money, and I think I ought to have the biggest say in this matter. If you played a trick on Walter, you are the meanest man that ever trod the deck of a ship. If you didn't, let me say that I don't think Walter stole the gold piece, although he may have taken it while he was asleep and not responsible for his doings."
"Thank you for saying that, Si," came from Walter. "But I don't think I took it even when asleep. To my mind Haskett is guilty, and nobody else."
"If I wasn't held--" began Haskett, when a young seaman named George Ellis, chief yeoman of the _Brooklyn_, stepped forward and asked to know what the trouble was about.
"I think I can tell something about this," said George Ellis, after the matter had been explained.
"You just hold your jaw!" stormed Haskett. "You don't know anything."
"I know what I see," answered the chief yeoman, pointedly; and something in his manner attracted such attention that all in the crowd gathered around to learn what he might have to say.
George Ellis was known to be an upright honest man, and one whose word was worth taking upon every occasion. He had an education above that of the ordinary man in the navy, and was anxious to make something of himself while in the service of his country, never dreaming, alas! that his life was so soon to be taken from him during our struggle in the cause of humanity and Cuban freedom.