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Thus it was in one of my blackest humours that Godby found me when, having set down the victuals he had brought, he closed the crazy door and seated himself on the cask that served me as chair, and bent to peer at me where I lay. "Mart'n," said he, speaking almost in a whisper, "be ye awake at last?" For answer I cursed him heartily.
'I'd know her voice anywhere aye, 'twas she whipped it from my girdle, my luck, shipmates our luck, but we'll find it if we have to pull the cursed house down brick and brick." "Godby," says Adam suddenly, leaning forward, "did ye get no glimpse o' this man's face?" "Nary a one, master, and for why? the place was dark and he wore a great flapped hat."
And as I hearkened, every individual timber seemed to find a voice, and what with this and the uneasy pitching and rolling of the ship I judged we were well under weigh and beyond the river-mouth. "What, Mart'n pal," says he, sitting beside me on my berth and setting down the food and drink he had brought, "are ye waking at last?" "Have I slept long, Godby?"
"Godby," says Adam, beckoning us where stood the compass or bittacle, "look'ee, as she bears now we should be nigh enough yon curst ship to learn more of her by peep o' dawn." "Aye, Cap'n and then?" "Then you shall try what you can do wi' one o' those long guns o' yours."
And who so sweet and grave as my dear lady as she made the responses and hearkened to Adam, and he mighty impressive. For witnesses we had Master Penruddock the surgeon and Godby, and now, my lady retiring, we must crack a bottle, all four, though I know not what we drank. And presently Adam drew me out upon the quarter-deck, there to walk with me a while under a great moon.
Down came bran-new bands to the wheel directly, and better than we had lost. And my cousin Godby, that has a water-wheel, was rattened, by his scythe-blades being flung in the dam. He squared with Mary Anne, and then he got a letter to say where the blades were. But one was missing. He complained to Mr. Grotait here, and Mr.
"Hold off!" says he, whereupon they shrank back from me, one and all, before his levelled pistol, and there came a moment's silence wherein I heard Godby utter a gasp, and letting fall the caliver he stared at me a-gape. "Here's no murderer, ye fools!" says Adam, scowling round on them, "'Tis no more than ha, way for Sir Rupert make way for the Captain, there!"
"And then why," questioned the little peddler, "why break open the wicket-gate?" "To get in!" "Aha!" quoth Godby the peddler, winking roguish eye, "On the prigging lay perchance, cull, or peradventure the mill-ken? Speak plain, pal, all's bowmon!" "I'm no flash cull," says I, "neither buzz, file, mill-ken nor scamperer." "Mum, pal, mum!
Presently, espying Godby where divers of his fellows rove new tackle to a gun, I enquired for Adam. "I' the gun room, Mart'n nay, I'll stand along wi' you." So he brought me down to the gun room where sat Adam, elbows on table, chin on hand, peering up at one who stood before him in fetters, a haggard, warworn figure. "What Resolution?" said I.
So we came beneath her high, curving side, where leaned familiar figures lean, bronzed fellows who welcomed us with cheer that waked many an echo. Upon the quarter-deck was Penruddock the surgeon, who bustled forward to greet us himself as loquacious as ever and very loud in praise of the cure he had once wrought in me; and here, too, was Godby, to make a leg to my lady and grasp my hand.
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