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The steamer's speed increased, though it did not much matter so far as getting out of the fire zone was concerned, as the Spanish Costaguardia's attention became fixed on the abandoned craft. "My God!" soliloquized the chief mate, "the Rock-scorpions are right. They have pounced upon the derelict like wolves.
"Oh yes," replied the Rock-scorpions; "but you will have to wait until dark before they can be brought from their moorings." This was agreed to.
"Among our crew, made up of some really splendid fellows, but with an odd mixture of 'Mahonese, 'Dagos, 'Rock-Scorpions, and other countrymen, there was an old man-of-war's man named Sadler a little, dried-up old chap of some sixty years, who had fought under Nelson at Trafalgar, so he said, and had been up and down, all around and criss-cross the world so often that he had actually forgotten where he had been, and so had all his geography lessons, learned by cruising experience, sadly mixed up in his head; which, although small, with a little old, weazened frontispiece, was full of odds and ends of yarns, with which he used to delight us young aspirants for naval honors, as he would spin them to us on the booms on moonlight nights, after the hammocks had been piped down.
Captain S 's vessel had a severe passage, and on arrival in Falmouth he went to an hotel. In the course of the evening he was relating the incidents of the voyage, as was the custom with orthodox captains on arrival in port, and of course he included his experiences with the Rock-scorpions and their feluccas.
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