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"You hear, gentlemen," said Mr Skrimmage. "Hear! yes, but we don't taste. I should like to see it sarved out," continued the master's-mate. "Sir," replied Mr Skrimmage, "I must take the liberty to observe to you, that that is a responsibility never intrusted to the steward. The established allowance is always portioned out by Mrs Skrimmage herself."
"One of my objects in having you here to-day, Cuffe," observed Nelson, as they sat together over their wine, the cabin cleared, "was to say something about the vacant berth in your gun-room; and the other was to beg a master's-mate of you, in behalf of Berry. You remember that some of your people were received on board here before you got in, the other day?"
"Do you know this gentleman, Etooelle?" demanded Raoul, who had gone to the gangway to receive his visitor. "It is Mr. Clinch, the master's-mate of the accursed Proserpine; he who spoke us in the yawl, off the point yonder." "How!" exclaimed Clinch, his alarm being sufficiently apparent in his voice; "have I fallen into the hands of Frenchmen?"
Joshua Daunton was on his knees before Mr Pigtop, who was in an agony of pain, holding on his upper lip, which was nearly severed from his face, whilst the blood was streaming through his fingers. Doctor Thompson with diachylon and black sticking-plaster was soon on the spot to the assistance of the almost dislipped master's-mate.
There were signs of cogniac about his face too, but he had more rank, more at stake, and brighter hopes than the master's-mate. Then he was evidently better practised in the ways of the world than his companion, and had constantly a sort of uneasy vigilance about his eye and manner that gave me no little concern.
At length the lieutenant said something about the "poor devil on deck," and Marble was sent up, to look out for the ship, while Diggens came below to eat. The instant the master's-mate appeared, I could see the brandy had been doing its work on him, and I was fearful his superior might notice it.
Raoul Yvard was indebted to a piece of forethought in Clinch for his life. But for the three guns fired so opportunely from the Foudroyant, the execution could not have been stayed; and but for a prudent care on the part of the master's-mate, the guns would never have been fired. The explanation is this: when Cuffe was giving his subordinate instructions how to proceed, the possibility of detention struck the latter, and he bethought him of some expedient by which such an evil might be remedied. At his suggestion then, the signal of the guns was mentioned by the captain, in his letter to the commander-in-chief, and its importance pointed out. When Clinch reached the fleet, Nelson was at Castel
Admiral Campbell, "Hawke's right hand at Quiberon," who entered the service as a substitute for a pressed man, is another; and James Clephen, pressed as a sea-going apprentice, became master's-mate of the Doris, and taking part in the cutting out of the Chevrette, a corvette of twenty guns, from Cameret Bay, in 1801, was for his gallantry on that occasion made a lieutenant, fought at Trafalgar and died a captain.
"Is it your habit to exaggerate, or do you only indulge in it occasionally, young 'un?" quietly inquired Percival, the master's-mate, looking up from a book he was devouring with his breakfast. "Exaggerate? How do you mean?" returned Summers, flushing up very red in the face. "I thought it would be understood that I was only joking."
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