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They were all good-tempered, agreeable lads, and in other respects were about on a par with the average run of midshipmen. The master's-mate, Mr Percival, was berthed with us.
One other officer was required, and the lot fell on Percival, the master's-mate. The doctor was to go, as a matter of course, but he was to be a non-combatant. Little Summers and I poor Pilgarlic were so entirely consumed with disgust, that we could find no words sufficiently powerful to express our feelings, and we simply stood glaring at each other in moody silence.
As he read, an old master's-mate, standing at the peak-halyards, begins pulling at the ropes. The British ensign, carried through the ship's anonymous days, comes fluttering down, and in its place runs up the white naval ensign of the Confederacy, with the starry Southern cross in the red field of the corner. Then the reading is ended. Boom! goes the starboard forecastle-gun.
"The ship's yours, again, Captain Wallingford." "Mr. Diggens," I said, approaching the master's-mate, "as I have a necessity for this vessel, which is my property, if you please, sir, I'll now take charge of her in person. You had better go below, and make yourself comfortable; there is good brandy to be had for the asking, and you may pass an agreeable evening, and turn in whenever it suits you."
The master's-mate, who was directed to take the vessel to Portsmouth, was the spurious progeny of the first-lieutenant of a line-of-battle ship, and a young woman who attended the bum-boat, which supplied the ship's company with necessaries and luxuries, if they could afford to pay for them.
Hawsepipe, a master's-mate, who was acting as master, had been very fidgety for some time, and at last, "What do you think all this means, Mr Chester?" said he. "I scarcely know what to make of it," I replied. "I have never seen anything quite like it before.
But the mind is not so easily cheated remorse not so soon blinded. Notwithstanding my misery, I became convalescent. I went to my duty doggedly. Everybody saw and respected my grief; and the affair was never mentioned to me by any, with one only exception, and that was six months after, by a heavy brutal master's-mate, named Pigtop, who had been in the pinnace that brought me off.
"Now's your time, Miles," the mate muttered, slipping one of my own pistols into my hands, as he spoke. "That master's-mate is as muzzy as a tapster at midnight, and I can make him do what I please. Neb has his orders, and the cook is ready and willing. You have only to say the word, to begin."
"As for my name, friend, it's no great matter. They call me Clinch, which is a good fast word to sail under, too; but it has no handle to it, other than of a poor devil of a master's-mate; and that, too, at an age when some men carry broad pennants." This was said bitterly, and in English; when uttered, the supposed Italian was wished a "buona sera" and the gig proceeded.
"I say, Mr Cribbage," cried an old master's-mate, to the caterer, who had entered shortly after the tea-kettles, and assumed his place at the end of the table, "what sort of stuff do you call this?" "What do you mean to imply, sir?" replied Mr Skrimmage, with a pompous air.
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