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At the close of this speech the men, as in duty bound, gave three cheers, the hammocks were piped down, and life on board the "Juno" resumed once more its normal conditions. The first question which suggested itself to the skipper, after getting his ship once more into fighting order, naturally was what was to be done with the supernumeraries which we had on board.
The marines had cleaned and loaded all the muskets, and placed them in the racks. At two o'clock, after dinner had been eaten, Wilkinson said to the boatswain: "The starboard-watch can sling their hammocks and turn in if they like.
So when Lucy, after making wholly ready, had stolen to the door, let herself out, and closed it silently behind her, Evelyn sprang out of bed. Perhaps Lucy simply could not sleep, she said to herself, and had gone down to sit on the lower porch, or lie in one of the hammocks swinging under the trees. The night was exceedingly warm, even the usual cooling breath from the river being absent.
Some were sitting or lying in hammocks which had been hung from the branches of the trees; others were entertaining themselves in a game that was going on around a large, flat stone. Playing cards, checkers, dice and many other games were in progress.
Slight as the disturbance had been, uneasiness was in the air. The savages on the far shore were up, peering at the tambo and muttering to one another. Measuring the distance, the lieutenant saw that, though they had undoubtedly seen the flashlight switched on and off and made out the movements of men, they could not have discerned what lay on the ground beyond the hammocks.
The dismalness of the prospect was of course vastly exaggerated by the feeble light of the candle, which, swaying in my hand, flung a swarming of shadows upon the scene, through which the hammocks glimmered wan and melancholy. I came away in a fright, sliding the door to in my hurry with a bang that fetched a groaning echo out of the hold.
With her chin in her hands she resignedly watched him complete her bed of tiger skins. "We have desecrated the temple by disturbing the rugs," she said at length. "I'll have 'em make some hammocks for us to-morrow and we'll hang 'em in each end of the temple. And we'll also have this place divided into two or three apartments, say two sleeping rooms and a parlor, perhaps a kitchen.
Hope's Wharf was connected with Port Erskine, a pool about twenty yards long by three or four wide, and communicated with the side of the lighthouse by Watt's Reach, a distance of about thirty yards. About eight o'clock that morning the bell rang for breakfast. Such of the men as were not already up began to get out of their berths and hammocks. To Ruby the scene that followed was very amusing.
Then come in succession the following routine orders, and their correspondent evolutions: "Reef topsails!" "Stand by the hammocks!" "Pipe down!" "Roll up the cloths!" "Call the watch!" "Pipe the sweepers!" And thus, at last, the first day of the week at sea, in a man-of-war, is at an end.
The master of hammocks makes a knot the name of which I do not know I cannot so much as describe it. But I would like to twist it again two quick turns, a push and a pull; then, the greater the strain put upon it, the greater its resistance.
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